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0jj filbert ^oxvt Bancroft 

NATIVE RACES OF THE PACIFIC STATES ; five volumes. 
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AMERICA ; three volumes. 
HISTORY OF MEXICO ; six volumes. 
HISTORY OF TEXAS AND the; NORTH MEXICAN STATES; 

two volumes. 
HISTORY OF ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO; one volume. 
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA ; seven volumes. 
HISTORY OF NEVADA, COLORADO AND WYOMING; oue 

volume. 
HISTORY OF UTAH ; oue volume. 

HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST COAST ; two volumes. 
HISTORY OF OREGON ; two volumes. 
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, IDAHO and MONTANA; one 

volume. 
HISTORY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA ; oue volume. 
HISTORY OF ALASKA ; one volume. 
CALIFORNIA PASTORAL ; one volume. 
CALIFORNIA INTER-POCULA ; one volume. 
POPULAR TRIBUNALS ; two volumes. 
ESSAYS AND MISCELLANY ; one volume. 
LITERARY INDUSTRIES ; one volume. 
CHRONICLES OF THE KINGS ; several volumes. 



HISTORY 






BPxITISH COLUMBIA 



HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT 



b- 



1792-1887 




SAN FRANCISCO 
THE HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
1890 



a , H , (^ 






Eutered according to Act of Congress in the year 18S9, by 

HUBERT H. BANCROFT, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



All Pihjhts Eesei-ved. 



PREFACE, 



More tlian a century elapsed after a charter was 
granted by Charles II. to Prince Rupert and a com- 
pany of seventeen others, incorporated as the Governor 
and Company of Adventurers of England trading into 
Hudson's Bay, before the first trading posts were built 
among the almost unpeopled solitudes of British Co- 
lumbia, or, as the Mainland was then termed. New 
Caledonia. And yet it was but an accident that the 
construction of these little picket-fenced enclosures 
did not lead to the acquisition by Great Britain of an 
empire no less valuable than is now the dominion of 
Canada. 

In 1579, Sir Francis Drake anchored in the bay 
that still bears his name on the coast of California, and, 
in behalf of his sovereign, took possession of the coun- 
try, which he called New Albion, this name being 
afterward applied to all the territory northward from 
Drake's Bay almost to the Columbia Biver. Long 
before the first American settlers, bringing with them 
their flocks and herds, had crossed the snow-clad 
mountains which form the eastern boundary of Ore- 
gon, forts and trading posts had been established in the 
valleys of the Umpqua and the Willamette. Toward 
the north the English claimed, by right of discovery, 



VI PREFACE. 

the country in the neighborhood of Nootka Sound, 
Finall}^, in 1840, a proposition was considered by the 
manager of the Hudson's Bay Company to purchase 
the Ross colony, estabhshed by the Russians on the 
coast of New Albion. That the bargain was not 
concluded was probably due to the fear of troublesome 
complications with the United States. Thus to the 
right of discovery and prior occupation in the far north- 
west would have been added the right of purchase, 
and if, at the time of the gold excitement, a few years 
later, the English had gained a foothold in the coun- 
try, it is probable that they would have laid claim to a 
part of the territory ceded by Mexico to the United 
States in 1848. 

Originally a mere portion of the vast game pre- 
serve of the Hudson's Bay Company, little has been 
handed down to us of the early records of British Co- 
lumbia, although that little forms perhaps the most in- 
teresting portion of its history. Among the sources 
whence I have derived the information that I now 
lay before the reader, are valuable manuscripts handed 
to me by some of the principal actors in the events 
which they describe ; as, Roderick Finlayson, James 
Deans, and Alexander Caulfield Anderson. For other 
portions of my narrative, I have also depended largely 
on manuscripts, all of which have received due men- 
tion in this volume. 

In 1856 gold was discovered in the bed of the Fra- 
ser River, and in 1857 the San Juan Island difficulty 
was approaching a crisis. It was probably due in part 
to both of these causes, and also to the fear that New 
Caledonia, already largely occupied by Americans, 
might be absorbed into the territory of the United 
States, that, in 1858, an act was passed by the parlia- 



PREFACE. vii 

ment of Great Britain to provide for the government 
of British Columbia, by which name was known there- 
after the domain of England on the western mainland 
of North America. And now the reign of the great 
monopoly had come to an end. In the follow^ing year 
Vancouver Island was constituted a separate colony, 
and so remained until 1866, when, on account of the 
enormous expense of maintaining the machinery of 
government among a handful of people, the two de- 
pendencies were merged into one. 

Between 1862 and 1871 gold w^as shipped by the 
banks of British Columbia to the value of more than 
$16,650,000, while the amount of treasure carried away 
by miners from the several districts cannot be esti- 
mated at less than $6,000,000. But though rumor 
of golden sands and gold-bearing river-beds seldom 
fails to attract hordes of fortune-hunters from all quar- 
ters of the globe, such an element forms by no means 
a desirable addition to the population of a young, am- 
bitious, and thriving colony. As in California, in Aus- 
tralia, and in New Zealand, the wealth thus acquired 
was seldom turned to good account; and little of it 
remained to enrich the country whence it was gath- 
ered, those who collected it becoming not infrequently 
a burden on the more staid and industrious portion 
of the community. To British Columbia flocked a 
heterogeneous gathering of adventurers from the east- 
ern and western states, from Spain, from Mexico, from 
California, from China, and from Australia. Thus the 
necessity for some stable form of government to con- 
trol this lawless and turbulent population made all the 
more welcome to the settlers who had established there 
a permanent home the organization of the two colonies 
as a province of the dominion of Canada. 



viii PREFACE. 

As to geographical position, British Columbia has 
the same advantages over the Pacific states and terri- 
tories as the eastern ' provinces enjoy over the states 
bordering on the Atlantic. As St John's in New- 
foundland is nearer by some hundreds of miles to the 
great commercial ports of northern Europe than is the 
city of New York, so Victoria is nearer to the great 
seaports of western Asia than is the city of San Fran- 
cisco. 

Not least among the factors that contribute to the 
wealth of British Columbia is the construction of the 
Canadian Pacific railroad, completed in November 
1885, at the expense and risk of the Dominion gov- 
ernment. On the line of its route, and at points nearer 
to the Pacific than to the Atlantic seaboard, are 
immense tracts of fertile land, certain erelong to be 
occupied as farms and cattle-ranges, while mineral 
deposits of untold value await only the capital needed 
for their development. Until the completion of this 
road, the commerce of the province was comparatively 
insignificant; but that a portion of the rich traffic be- 
tween Europe and Asia will eventually pass through 
this territory, is almost beyond a peradventure. 

Compared with the riper development of California, 
Oregon, and other Pacific states and territories, 
British Columbia is yet only in her infancy; but that 
a brilliant future awaits this province may safely be 
predicted. As capital and labor are attracted to the 
country, and both can be obtained at reasonable rates, 
the Mainland will be more fully explored, and its 
valleys and plains made fit for settlement. Although 
the agricultural area is somewhat restricted, it is never- 
theless sufficient to maintain a very considerable popu- 
lation; and that population will increase, slowly per- 



PREFACE. ix 

haps and unsteadily at first, like the ebb and flow of 
an advancing tide, there can be little doubt. Mines, 
of which not even the outcroppings have yet been 
touched, will be made to unfold their hidden treasures, 
commercial resources still latent will be developed, 
and the farmer will gather from the unwilling soil 
abundant harvests. 

Already fleets are being despatched from harbors 
which a few years ago were unoccupied. Already the 
province ships to South America, to China, and to 
Australia her timber and spars; to California, her 
coal; to English ports, her fish, her silver and lead; 
and to all the world, her f;old; receivino; in return raw 
produce and provisions from the United States, man- 
ufactured goods from England, and luxuries from 
Europe and Asia. 

But in reviewing the condition and prospects of 
British Columbia, we must look beyond her limits, and 
consider her as linked with her sister colonies, with 
Vancouver Island as one with herself, and with the 
dominion of Canada, of which she is the youngest 
member. The completion of the overland railroad has 
riveted yet more closely the bonds which unite all 
British subjects, wherever their lot is cast, and the an- 
ticipations held forth in the speech from the throne, 
when first the Mainland was declared a colony, have 
already been measurably fulfilled. " I hope," said her 
Majesty, "that this new colony on the Pacific may be 
but one step in the career of steady progress, by which 
my dominions in North America may be ultimately 
peopled, in an unbroken chain from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, by a loyal and industrious population." 



CONTEI^TS OF TniS VOLUME. 



CHAPTER I. 

SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

PAGE 

The Spaniards on the Coast of British Columbia — Perez, Heceta, and Ar- 
tt-aga — Expedition of James Cook — Hanna — MaiircUe — La P<5rouse 
— Portlock and Dixon — Guise — Lowrie- -Barclay — Meares — Gray — 
Kendrick — Martinez — Haro — Colnett — uouglas — Elisa — Quimper — 
Galiaiio and Vald6s — Bodega y Cuadra — Vancouver 1 



CHAPTER II. 

GENERAL VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

Eastern Parallels — Coniiguration of North-western America — British Co- 
lumbia Coast — Piiget Sound — Vancouver Island — Queen Charlotte 
Islands — Climatic Sections of the Mainland — New Caledonia — 
Heights of Land — The Columbia and Fraser Plateau Basin — Skeena 
and Stikeen — Oregon, Washington, and Idaho — Northwest Coast 
Climates — The Temperature of Various Localities — Fauna and Flora 
— The Aborigines — Attitudes of the Fur-traders and Settlers tow.ud 
tlie Natives — Peaceful Regime under the Great Monopoly — The Chi- 
nook Jargon 32 



CHAPTER III. 

OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 
1S41. 

Aboriginal British Columbia — Forts and Fur-traders — Systems of Com- 
minilcation — Inherent Power of Civilization over Savagism — Fur- 
trading Districts — Stations — Missionary and Agricultural Settlements 
— Interior Forts — Coast Stations — The British and the Russian Fur 
Companies — The Hudson's Bay Company's Circulating Library — 
Joint Occupancy of the Northwest Coast by England and tlie United 
States — The Treaty Dividing the Domain — The North« est Coast Im- 
mediately I'riorto the Beginning of British Columbia History Proper 

( ni ) 



CONTEXTS. 

PAGE 

— Visit of Douglas to the Several Posts — Sitka and Etholin — Quarrul 
between Douglas antl McNeill— Survey of the Stikeeu and Taku Re- 
gion — References for This and the Preceding Chapter 52 



CHAPTEE IV. 

CAMOSUN AND ESQUIMALT. 

1842. 
Necessities of a Northern Metropolitan Post — Encroachments of Settlers 
on the Columbia — The Dividing Line — Growing Importance of Agri- 
culture—The Question of Locality — A Northern Rendezvous for 
Whalers — The Southern End of Vancouver Island — Its Advantageous 
Position — Douglas Surveys the Harbors — Camosun and Esquimalt 
Compared — Report of Douglas 



CHAPTER V. 

FOUNDING OF FORT CAMOSCN, 

1 S 1.3 
Expedition from Fort Vancouver — Source of Agricultural Supplies — The 
Cowlitz Country — Embark on the Beai'er — Visit to the Clallams 
— Anchor in Camosun Harbor — Beauties of the Surroundings — x^bo- 
riginal Occupants — Selection of a Site — Two Points Attract Atten- 
tion — Location Settled — The Jesuit, Bolduc — His Conference with 
the Natives — The Fort-builders Begin Operations — Portentous Signs 
— Bolduc Celebrates Mass — He Visits Whidbey Island — Douglas 
Departs for Tako — Abandonment of That Post, and also of Fort Mc- 
Loughlin — Pv,eturn of Douglas to Camosun with Reenforcements — 
The Stockade Erected — Arrival of the Cadboro — Ross Placed in Com- 
mand — Departure of Douglas with the Beaver and the Cadboro 92 



CHAPTER VI. 

AFFAIRS AT CAMOSUN 

1S44. 
Death of Commander Ross — Roderick Finlayson — !^ ketch of his Career — 
At Forts Tako and Simpson — Bibliographical Note on his Manu- 
script — His Character — First Cargo of Live-stock — The Savages 
Make Game of the Cattle — Redress Demanded and Refused — War 
Declared — Tsoughilam and Tsilalthach with their Allies Attack the 
Fort — Stj-ategy of Finlayson — Bloodless Victory — The Pipe of i'eaca 
is Smoked — Descriptions of the Fortress — Warre and Vavasour — 
Eerthold Seemann — Finlayson 's Letter — James Deans — His Charac- 
ter and ^lanusciipt — Interesting and Minute Description of the Fort 
— Under Orders of Douglas Fort Camosun was Built without a Nail. 102 



CONTENTS. Xiii 

CHAPTER Vn. 

CAMOS0N, ALBERT, ^^CTORIA. 

1845. 

PAGE 

Extermination of Savage Nomenclature — Camosun Becomes First Al- 
bert, and then Victoria — Food Supply — Douglas' Motto, 'Great 
Ends from Small Means ' — Wooden Ploughs and Rope Harness — 
A More Liberal Economy Sometimes Profitable — Outward-bound 
Ships from England now Come Directly Hither — Whaling Fleets — 
The Mission of the America — Captain Gordon as a Sportsman — Hos- 
pitality at Fort Victoria — ' Fifty-four Forty or Fight ' — More Ves- 
sels of War at Victoria — Also Surveyors and Appraisers of Territories 
— The Northwest Coast not Worth Fighting for — Adventures of Paul 
Kane — Fort Victoria in Early Days 117 

CHAPTER Vni. 

THE SH0SHWAP CONCPIRACT. 
1846. 

Kamloop — The Old Fort and the New — The Romance of Fur-trading — 
The Lordly Aboriginal and his Home — John Tod, King of Kamloop 
— His Physique and Character — Lolo, a Ruler among the Shushwaps 
— Who and What He was — His Kingdom for a Horse — Annual Sal- 
mon Expedition to the Eraser — Information of the Conspiracy — Lolo 
Retires from before his Friends — Tod to the Rescue — One Man 
against Three Hundred — Small-pox as a Weapon — A Signal Victory 
— Chief Nicola Measures Wits with Mr Tod — And is Found Want- 
ing 134 

CHAPTER IX. 

Anderson's explorations. 
1846-1847. 
Necessity of a New Route between the Bri tisli Columbia Seaboard and New 
Caledonia — i\Iust be WhoUy within British Territory — Anderson Pro- 
poses Explorations — Authority and Means Granted — Biograpical and 
Bibliographical Note of Anderson and his Manuscript History — Sets 
out from Alexandria — Proceeds to Kamloop — Thence Explores by 
Way of Anderson and Harrison Lakes to Langley — Returns by Way 
of the Coquihalla, Similkameen, and Lake Nicola — Second Expedi- 
tion along Thompson and Fraser Rivers — Back by Kequeloose and 
the New Similkameen Trail — Report and Suggestions 157 

CHAPTER X. 

YALE AND HOPE ESTABLISHED. 

1848-1841). 
Establishment on the Eraser at the Landing of the Sachincos — Tame3 
Murray Yale — Causes Which Led to the Building of Fort Vale — 



xir CONTENTS. 

PAGK 

Orders Given Interior Traders to Break their Way through .'o Lang- 
ley — Three Brigades Join for That Purpose — The Route Chcsen not 
•Satisfactory — Anderson's Proposal — Building of Fort Hope— A New 
Koute Attempted — It Proves Worse than the First — Joseph W. Mc- 
Kay on the North Coast — Sharp Practice between English and Prus- 
sian Traders — The Constance in Northern Waters — Effect in British 
Columbia of the California Gold Discovery — Bags of Gold-dust at 
Fort Victoria— The Excitement in the Interior 171 

CHAPTEK XI. 

ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AND NANAIMO. 

1849-1852. 
A New Factor, Coal — The Existence of This Mineral Known from the 
Earliest Times — Pacific Coal-fields — Discovery at Beaver Harbor—* 
The QuackoUs and the Fort McLoughlin Blacksmith — Tolmie Ap- 
pears — The Notable John Dunn — Warre and Vavasour Report the 
Discovery — Which Attracts the Attention of Government — Fort 
Rupert Built — Muir and his Scotch Miners Arrive — Another Arrival 
— Examinations and Tests — Failure at Fort Rupert — Discovery of 
Coal at Nanaimo Harbor — Another Blacksmith Story — McKay to 
the Proof — Muir Moves from Fort Rupert — Fort Nanaimo Built — 
Visit of Douglas — Minor Discoveries 185 

CHAPTER XII. 

CROWN GRANT OP VANCOUVER ISLAND TO THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. 
1849. 

Spirit of Monopoly — The Adventurers of England More Jealous of Brit- 
ish Subjects than of Foreigners — Colonization to be Retarded by 
Favoring rather than by Opposing It — The Grant Solicited as Early 
as 1837 — Woes of the Monopoly — Failure to Obtain the Grant at 
This Time — Fur-hunting and Settlement Antagonistic — The Liquor 
Traffic — The Company Apply for the Grant — Startling Proposal — 
Influence of United States Acquisitions on British Pacific Territory 
— Piety a Plea for Power — The Fur-trade and Colonization Again — 
The Draft Perfected — The Mainland — Preamble and Grant — Condi- 
tions of Grant — Differences Of Opinion respecting the Wisdom of 
the Measure 202 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND UNDER HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY REGIME. 

1849-1859. 

Prospectus and Advertisement for Colonists — Qualifications of the Com- 
pany for Colonizing— Objections Raised — They were Fur-traders — 
And yet They had Ships and Money— The Puget Sound Company 



CONTENTS. XV 

PAGE 

would have a Share— No Easy Matter to Please All— Land One 
Pound an Acre— The Scheme a Foreordained Failure — Price of Land 
too High — The Gold-fields of California One Cause of the Failure— 
Vancou^-er Island in Parliament — The Earl of Lincoln, Lord Elgin, 
and Mr Gladstone on the Situation — New Attitude of the Hudson's 
Bay Company in Relation to the Natives 223 



CHAPTER XIV. 

TWO ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. 

The Doctor and the Divine — Robert J. Staines — A Man of Frills— His 
Interview with the King of the Hawaiian Islands-The Man Mis- 
taken for the Master — His Arrival at Victoria— Mud— Parson and 
School-teacher — Mrs Staines a Most Estimable Lady — Quarrel with 
the Company — Joins the Settler's Faction — He Cultivates Swine — 
The Settlers Steal his Pigs— Hot Litigations— His Sad End— The 
Doctor-Colonist — John Sebastian Helmckeu — His Physique and 
Character— Enters Politics— Accepts Office uuder the Governor — 
Discovers his Mistake— And Becomes a Supporter of the Monopolists 238 

CHAPTER XV. 

SETTLEMKNT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

1849-1857. 
What are Settlers?— Not Fur-traders — Nor Coal-miners— Nor yet the 
Nootka Diplomatists — The Mainland not Included in the Coloniza- 
tion Scheme — The Mormons Cast an Eye upon the Island — Woman, 
Red and White— The Monopolists Seize McKenzie, Skinner, McAu- 
ley, and Parsons— Bona Fide Settlers Obliged to Take What They can 
Get — W. Colquhoun Grant— His Settlement at Soke Harbor— Lease 
to Thomas INIunroe— Grant Sells Soke to the Muirs— James Cooper, 
Sailor, Trader, and Agriculturist— Builds One of the Many First 
Vessels— He Takes up Land at Metchosin— Thomas Blenkhorn— 
The Ilarpooner, Norman Morrinon, and the Tory Bring Settlers — 
The Town of Victoria Laid out— Wails from Fort Victoria — James 
Deans Arrives— Bail! ie and Langford— Progress of Settlement 247 

CHAPTER XVI. 

GOVERNMENT ESTABLISUED. 

1850-1852. 
James Douglas Nominated by Sir John Pelly for Governor— Earl Grey 
Refuses to Appoint Him— Richard Blanshard Chosen— His Arrival 
at Victoria — Reads his Commission— Visits Fort Rupert— Relative 
Attitudes of the Governor and the Fur Company — Ruler of the 
Queen's Wilderness- Settlers and Subjects— No Material for a Coun- 
cil— Nomination of Council Postponed — John Sebastian Helmcken 



CONTEXTS. 

FAQK 

Appointed Magistrate at Fort Rupert — The Murdered Deserters — 
Character of Blansliard — His Unpleasant Position — Heavj' Expenses 
and 111 Health — What the Settlers Think of It — Blanshard Appoints 
a Council, Resigns, Shakes the Dust from his Feet, and Departs 
from the Island — James Douglas Appointed Governor 263 



CHAPTER XVII. 

JAMES DOtTGLAS. 

Birth and Education — Enters the Service of the Northwest Company — 
Friendship of McLoughlin — Opportunity — What He should Know — 
His Life in New Caledonia — Overcome by Love — Meets and Marries 
Nelia Connolly — Estalilishes Fort Connolly — His Attention to Busi- 
ness and his Strict Obedience— Becomes Chief Tracer — Then Chief 
Factor — Visits California — Accountant and General Superintendent 
of Forts — Active in the Establishment of Fort Victoria — His Cold- 
ness toward Emigrants— Quarrels with McLoughlin — Removes to 
Victoria — Is Made Governor — And Knighted — Visits Europe — Phy- 
siq^ue and Character — Douglas and McLoughlin Compared 285 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THK ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 
1851-1859. 

Reconciliation of Antagonistic Elements — The Terms of Settlement Un- 
just and Impolitic — The Inauguration of Government Premature — 
No Governmnent but the Best Government — Continuance of the 
Domination of the Monopoly — The Puget Sound Company — Provis- 
ions of the Crown Grant in Regard to Government — Expiration of 
the First Five-year Term and Renewal — The Offices of Governor 
and Magistrate at First United — Illegality of Delegating Imperial 
Authority to a Colonial Governor in Council — Organization of a 
House of Assembly — Fai'cical Performances of the First Legislators — 
The W^ild Beasts and Savages Survive the Result — Touching Dis- 
play of Family Affection in the Manipulation of Government Affairs 
— Douglas Compelled to Relinquish Some Portion of his Honors and. 
Emoluments 310 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

1853-1859. 
The Questions of Vancouver Island Government and Justice in Home 
Political Circles — There is No Money in It — And therefore They may 
Safely be Left to Themselves — Blanshard, the First Governor, Like- 
wise the First Judge — Douglas as a Man-tamer and Measurer of Retri- 
bution — The Thetis and the Trincomalee Expeditions — Bloodless 



CONTENTS. xvii 

Victory over the Cowichins — The Brighest Virtue of James Douglas — 
David Cameron ilade Chief Justice — His Antecedents, Duties, and 
End— His Successors, Needham and Begbie — Revenue — Land and 
Liquor — The Mighty Power of Rum 329 

CHAPTER XX. 

THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 
1858. 

Gold! Hail All-powerful and Most Worshipful: — Its Presence not Se- 
cretly Known to the Fur-traders — Discovery on Vancouver Island 
— On Queen Charlotte Islands — On Skeena River — In the Cascade 
Mountains of Washington — At Colville — At Kamloop— On Thomp- 
son Rivei- — Oni Eraser River — The Tidings Spread — The Matter 
Laid before Government — Eifect on California — Rush to the Mines — 
Routes and Methods of Transportation— Whatcom versus Victoria — 
Trail-making — Overland Expeditions — Licenses and Imposts — Effect 
on the Fur- traders 341 

CHAPTER XXI. 

DEATH OF THE MONOPOLY — THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA ESTABLISHED. 

1857-1858. 
Shall the Charter be Renewed? — Discussion of the Question in Parlia- 
ment — Referred to a Select Committee— Who Think the Charter 
should not be Renewed — Gold as a Revolutionist — Douglas Stands 
by for England — Late Fur Factors — Dugald McTavish — William 
Charles — The Hudson's Bay Company's License of Exclusive Trade 
with the Natives of the Mainland Revoked — Repurchase of the 
Island of Vancouver by the Imperial Government — Change of Com- 
pany Organization — Canada Purchases Rupert Land and tlie North- 
west Territory — Liberal and Humane Policy of the Company in 
Regard to Gold-seekers and Speculators 376 

CHAPTER XXn. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

1858-1863. 
Authority at Victoria Disregarded by the First Comers — Douglas Looks 
into Affairs — What the Natives Think of It — Douglas as Law and 
Magistrate Maker — Indian Wars — Overtures of tlie Imperial Govern- 
ment to Douglas — Revenue — Loan — Public Lands — Miners' License 
— The British Cry Economy — Putting Things in Order — The Unau- 
thorized Acts of Douglas Legalized — Arrival of British Vessels of 
War — Men of Authority Appear — The United States Represented 
— ^Inauguration of the Governor at Langley — The Moody-McGowan 
Affray — New Westminster Founded — Officers of the New Govern- 
ment—Smuggling 3SI 

Hist. Beit. Col. b 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

1 856-1 8S0. 

PAGI 

Justice without Form— Inauguration of the Judiciary System— Jurisdic- 
tion of Canadian Courts Withdrawn— Pearkes Drafts a Plan for the 
Mainland— Lytton Refers the Matter to Begbie— The Gold-fields 
Act— Appointment of Matthew Baillie Beghie— On Uniting the 
Courts Disestablished and Reorganized— Need liam Declines to Re- 
tire—Two Courts Itoth Supreme — Character of Begbie— He Assists 
Douglas in Organizing Government — Justice at Cariboo — Jurors 
Rebuked— Stipendiary Magistrates— Justice at Kootenai and Met- 
lahkatlah —Convict Labor— Nobles along the Border— Vigilance 
Committee 419 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 
1808-1878. 

New Developments in the History of Mining— Character of the Mines — 
Mining Towns— Sluicing at Hope an<l Yale— Routes to the Diggings 
— Steam on the Fraser — Boats Ascend to Hope and Yale — Extension 
of Mining Area— Rush to Lytton— Roads — Prospectors Push North- 
ward-Bars Named— Field— Region Round Lilloet— Fountain, Ca- 
noe, Quesnel, and Thompson Mines— Quartz on Cherry Creek— The 
Mines of the Fraser Valley— Character of tlie Dry -diggings— Terrace 
Composition — Gold Distribution and YieUl 438 

CHAPTER XXV. 

GOLD IN THE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 

Cariboo Region — Its Deposits — New Mining Era — Golden Dreams — 
Early Developments— Roads and Mountain Trails— The Great Pros- 
pectors—The Influx— Quesnel River Mines— Horsefly and Quesnel 
Lake — Iveithley and its Town — Harvey and Cunningham Creeks — 
Antler Creek Riches— Grouse Creek 47^ 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

MINING IN CARIBOO. 

1863-1882. 
Rise of William Creek— Rich Discoveries— Large Yield— Decline— Deep 
Mining — Marysville Lead — Drainage Operations — Richfield — Mos- 
quito and Mustang Creeks— Outskirt Placers— Lightning Creek — 
Van Winkle- Decline and Revival— Lowhee— Canon Creek and its 
Quartz— Okaracter of Cariboo Veins — Summary of Yield— Cariboo 
Lif«— The Low and the Intellectual 495 



CONTEXTS. x\% 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

1864-1882. 

PAGE 

Colnmbia River Deposits— Fine-gold Theory— Ancient River-beds- 
Early Diggings — Kootenai Excitement — Wild Horse Creek — Sas- 
katchewan Expedition— Perry Creek — Hydraulics— Subordinate Dis- 
tricts, Forty-nine Creek, Mooyie River — Big Bend — Routes and In- 
flux — French, McCulJoch, and Carnes Cieeks— Later Exploration — 
Extent of the Auriferous Region— Terrace Gravels— Rock Creek — 
Okanagan and Similliaineen Districts 520 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

GOLD DISCOVEPaES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

18G1-18S2. 
Omineca Country — Peace River Prospected — Govei-nment Expedition — 
Prospecting Chase — Vitale Creek — Omineca Overrated — Germansen 
Creek— Sluicing — Manson and Lost Creeks — Finlay River — The 
Skecna and Coast Placers — Prospects of Settlements — Cause of De- 
cline — The Stikeen Explored — Thibert's Discovery— Cassiar Placers 
— Dease Lake Tributaries 543 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

COAL. 

Coal-bearing Formations East and West — California, Oregon, and Wash- 
ington Fields Compared — British Columbia Coal-bearing Formations 
— Bituminous, Lignite, and Anthracite — Brown's Localities — Rich- 
ardson's Trough — Beaver Harbor — Quatsino Harbor — Nanaimo — The 
Nanaimo Coal Company — The Vancouver Company— The Welling- 
ton Company — Progress of Development at Nanaimo — Dunsmuir's 
Adventures — The Nanaimo Stone Quarry — The Harewood Mine — 
Workings of the Vancouver Colliery — Queen Charlotte Islands An- 
thracite — Attempted Development of the Mines — Brown and Rich- 
ardson's Visits — Claudct and Isherwood's Analyses — Comox and 
Bayne Sound — Developments — Discoveries on the Mainland — Minis- 
ters' Reports — Statutory Regulations — Summary ... 565 

CHAPTER XXX. 

UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

1863-1871. 
A Legislative Council Organized for British Columbia — Inaugural Ad- 
dress of Governor Douglas — A Meek Response — Separate Rulers Ap- 
pointed for the Two Colonies— A Cordial Leave-taking— Review of 
Douglas' Administration — Regime of Frederick Seymour — Excessive 



COlsTENTS. 

PAOB 

Taxation — Union of the Colonies — The British North America Act — 
Anthony Alusgrave Governor — Britisli Columbia a Province of the 
Dominion — A Legislative Assembly Substituted for the Council — 
Condition of the Province — Indian Policy of the United States and 
of Great Britain 5S2 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICtfLTT. 

1854-1872. 
The Archipelago de Haro — San Juan Island Occupied by the Hudson's 
Bay Company — Customs Dues Demanded for the United States — 
Commissioners Appointed — Their Arguments — Indian Troubles — 
The Affair of the Hog — A Military Post Established by General 
Harney — Arrival of British Men-of-war — And of the U, S. Steamer 
Massachusetts — Protest of Douglas — Ha^-ney's Reply — Landing of 
U. S. Troops— Casey's Trip to Esquimalt— Its Result— A Compro- 
mise Offered by Lord Lyons — Attitude of President Buchanan — Gen- 
eral Scott Ordered to the Pacific Coast — Negotiations — Harney 
Recalled — Arbitration and Decision 605 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

1871-1874. 
The Tide of Westward-bound Migration — Reasons for and against the 
Railway Project — The Bill Carried in the Con;mons — Resolution 
Passed by the Canadian Parliament — Policy of the British and Cana- 
dian Governments — Preliminary Surveys — The Hugh Allan Con- 
tract — A Modest Demand — The Contract Annulled — Change of 
Administration — James D. Edgar's Negotiations — Their Failure and 
its Cause — Mackenzie's Railway Scheme — Objections to his Project. 640 

CHAPTER XXXin. 

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

1874-1885. 
The Carnarvon Terms — Their Acceptance — Defeat of the Esquimalt and 
Nanaimo Railway Bill — The Provincial Legislature's Petition to her 
Majesty— Rejoinder of the Dominion Government— Visit of the Earl 
of DufFerin— His Speech at Victoria— Threats of Secession— A Sec- 
ond Petition to the Queen — Proposed Annexation to the United 
States — One More Petition — Contract with the Syndicate — Engineer- 
ing Difficulties— Port Moody— Reasons for its Selection as the Ter- 
minus—Completion of the Line — A Costly Undertaking- The Road 
Built as a National Highway 661 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT. 

1870-1886. 

PAGX 

The Victoria and Esquimalt Railway — Protest of the Mainland Popula- 
lation — The Carnarvon Club — Secession or the Carnarv'on Terms — 
Defeat of the Elliott Ministry — A Lively Debate — The Legislature 
Votes for Separation — Discontent in the Capital — Cornwall Ap- 
pointed Chief Magistrate — Government of British Columbia — The 
Suffrage — Proceedings of the Legislature — The Judiciary 696 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 
18G1-1S86. 

Victoria — The Ubiquitous Chinaman — Esquimalt — Nanaimo — The Victo- 
^ riaCoal, Mining, and Laud Company — New Westminster — Langley — 
Lytton — Savona's Ferry — Kamloop — Clinton — Barkerville — Yale — 
Indian Missions and Missionai'ies — Metlakathla — Forts — Indifference 
of the Provincial Government — Civilization of the Native Tribes — 
Churohes — Charitable Societies — Public Schools — Journalism — Li- 
braries 707 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

1880-1886. 
Agricultural Areas — Public Lands — Stock-raising — Fruits — Fisheries — 
Salmon-canning — Manufactures — Gold-mining — Coal-mining — The 
Alaska Boundary — Exports and Imparts — Comparison with Other 
Provinces — Banking — Insurance — Shipping — Inland Navigation — 
Revenue and Expenditure — Public Debt — Comparison of Customs 
Returns — Elements of Prosperity — Biographical — Bibliograhical .... 740 



Index 77.' 



ATITHOEITIES QUOTED 

IN' THE 

IIISTOEY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



Ab-sa-ra-ka, Home of the Crows. Philadelphia, 1868. 

Allen (Alexander), Cariboo and the Mines of British Colnmbia. MS. 

Anderson (Alexander Caulfield), Dominion at the West. Victoria, 1872; Hand- 
book and Map to the Gold Region. San Francisco, 1858; Notes on the 
Indian Tribes of British North America. In Historical Mag., March 
1863, 73; Notes on North Western America. Montreal, 1876. 

Anderson (Alexander Caulfield), North-W est Coast History. MS._ 

Anderson (James), Letter to Sir George Simpson. In Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., 
xxvi. 18. 

Annals of British Legislation. London, 1856 et seq, 4to. 

Applegate (Jesse), Views of Oregon History. MS. 

Armstrong (A. N.), Oregon. Cliicago, 1857. . . , ^ ^ , . , _ 

Arrowsmith (John), Map of the Provinces of British Columbia and V ancouver 
Island. London, 1859. 

Astoria, Or., Astorian, ;Marine Gazette. 

Atlantic Monthly. Boston, 1858 et seq. 

BallantjTie (Robert M.), Hudson's Bay. Edinburgh, 1848 

Ballon (William T.), Adventures. MS. 

Bancroft (Hubert Howe), History of Alaska. 

Bancroft (Hubert Howe), History of California. 

Bancroft (Hubert Howe), History of Nevada. 

Bancroft (Hubert Howe), History of Northwest Coast. 

Bancroft (Hubert Howe), History of Oregon. 

Bancroft (Hubert Howe), History of Washmgton, Idaho, and jNIontana. 

Bancroft (Hubert Howe), Native Races of the Pacific States. New York, 

1875. 5 vols. 
Bancroft (Hubert Howe), Popular Tribunals. 

Bancroft Library MSS. Scrap-books containing classified notes used in writ- 
ing Bancroft's works, n • 1 J- 
Bancroft Library Newspaper Scraps, classified under the following headings: 
British Columbia, Fisheries, Shipping and Navigation, Trade and Com- 
merce. 
Bancroft's Hand-Book of Mining. San Francisco, 1861. 
Barkersville, Cariboo Sentinel. 

Barrett- Lennard (C. E.), Travels in British Columbia. London, 1862. 
Bayley (C. A. ), Vancouver Island Early Life. MS. 
Begbie (Matthew B.), Journey into the Interior of British Columbia. In 

Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxxi. 237. 
Blanshard (Ricliar.l), Vancouver Island. Despatches, 26 Dec. 1849 to 30 Aug. 

1851. New Westminster, n. d. 
Bolduc (J. B. Z.), Letter to Mr Cayenne, 15 Feb. 1844. lu De Smots Or. 

Missions, 51. , ... , 

(xxiu) 



xxi^ AUTHORITIES QUOTED. 

Bowles (Samuel), Across the Continent. Springfield, 1866; Our New West. 
Hartford, etc., 1SG9. 

British Columbia Agricultural and Horticultural Society. Reports. Victoria, 
1873 et seq. 

British Columbia, Guide to the Province of. Victoria, 1877. 

British Columbia, Memorial in Connection with the Omineca R.oad Petition, 
n. pi., n. d. 

British Columbia Milling and Mining Company, Prospectus. Victoria, 1878. 

British Columbia ISIining Stock Board. Constitution. Victoria, 1878. 

British Columbia Public Documents cited in my notes by their titles and 
dates, the title consisting of 'British Columbia,' followed by one of the 
following headings: Acts; Collection of Acts, Ordinances, and Proclama- 
tion; Consolidated Statutes; Correspondence on the Custom Stations 
between Victoria and Kootenay; Expenditure; Indian Land Question; 
Journals of Legislative Assembly; Journals of Legislative Council; Lands 
and Works; List of Voters; Minister of Mines' Reports; Ordinances; 
Overland Coach Road; Papers P^elating to Affairs — Further Papers; Public 
Schools; Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages; Sessional Papers; 
Statutes. 

British Columbia Railway Question, Opinions of the English Press. Victoria, 

British Columbia Sketches. MS. 

British North America. London, n. d. 

British North American Provinces, Correspondence respecting the Proposed 

Union — Further Papers. London, 18(57, folio. 
British North-West American Emigrants Settlement Association, n. pi. , n. d. 
Brown (R. C. Lundin), British Columbia— An Essay. New Westminster, 

18G3; British Columbia, The Indians and Settlers at Lilloet. London, 

1870. 
Brown (Robert), Geographical Distribution on Coal Fields of N. Pacific Coast. 

Edinburgh, 1869; On the Formation of Fjords, Caflons, Benches, etc. In 

Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxxix. 125; Vancouver Island Exploration. 

Victoria, 18G4. 
Browne (J. Ross), Lower California. See Taylor; Report upon the Mineral 

Resources of the States and Territories West of the Rocky Mountains. 

Washington, 1867; Washington, 1868; San Francisco, 1868. 
Bulfinch (Thomas), Oregon and El Dorado. Boston, 1866. 
Burnett (Peter H.), Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer. New 

York, 1880. 
Burnett (Peter H.), Recollections of the Past. MS. 2 vols. 
Butler (W. F.), The Wild North Land. Philadelphia, 1874. 

Cald-w^ell (Robert), The Gold Era of Victoria. London, 1855. 

California Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the. S. F., 1858 et seq. 

Canada, Handbook of Information for Intending Emigrants. Ottawa, 1877. 

Canada Public Documents cited in my notes by their titles and dates, the 
title consisting of 'Canada' followed by one of the following headings: 
Addresses of Governor; Agriculture; Canal Enlargement; Census; Coal 
Trade; Customs; Debates of the House of Commons; Estimates; Extra- 
dition of Prisoners; Geological Survey, SelwjTi (A. R. C), Director; 
Reports of Progress, etc.; Immigration and Colonization; Inland Reve- 
mies; Insurance; Interior; Lake Superior and Red River Settlement; 
Lights; Marine and Fisheries; Message Relative to the Terms of 
Union; Meteorological Magnetic; Militia; Navigable Streams; Northwest 
Mounted Police; Postmaster General; Public Accounts; Public Works; 
Secretary of State; Statistics; Trade and Navigation. 

Canadian Pacific Railway, Sandford Fleming, Engineer in Chief. Correspon- 
dence relating to. n. pi., n. d.; Maps and Charts; Papers connected with 
the awarding of Section Fifteen. Ottawa, 1877; Reports 1872 et seq. 
Ottawa, 1872 et seq. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED. xxv 

Canadian Parliamentary Companion, 1874. Montreal, 1874. 

Cariljoo, The Newly Discovered Gold Fields of British Columbia. London, 

18G2. 
Cariboo Quartz Mining Company, Memoranda. Victoria, 1878. 
Cartography of the Pacific Coast. MS. folio. 3 A'ols. 
Cliicago Academy of Sciences, Transactions. Chicago, 1869 et seq. 
Chinook Jargon, Dictionary of. Olynipia, 1873; Portland, 1878; Victoria, 

n.d.; Vocabular}'. San Francisco, ISGO. 
Chittenden (Newton H.), Travels in British Columbia and Alaska. Victoria, 

1882. 
Churchill (J. D.), and J. Cooper, British Columbia and Vancouver Island. 

London, 180(3. 
Claudct (F. G.), Gold. New Westminster, 1871. 
Columbia Mission, Occasional Paper. London, ISGl; Pastoral Address, n.pl., 

18G4; Reports 18G4 et seq. London, 1864 et seq. 
Compton (P. N.), Forts and Fort Life. MS. 
Cook (James), Troisieme Voyage k I'Ocean Pacifique en 1770-SO. Paris, 

1785. 4to. 4 vols. 
Cook (James), Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, 1776-80. London, 1784, 4to. 

3 vols, plates in folio; London, 1784. 4to. 4 vols; Phila. 1818. 2 vols. 
Cooper (James), Maritime Matters. MS. 

Cooper Gold and Silver Mining Company, Memorandum. Victoria, 1878. 
Coruwallis (Kinahan), The New El Dorado. London, 1858. 
Courterey (H. C), British Columbia Mines. MS. 
Cox (Ross), Adventures on the Columbia River. London, 1831. 2 vols; N'ew 

York, 1832. 
Cridge (E.), Characteristics of ^ames Douglas. MS. 
Crosby (H. R.), The San Juan Difficulty. In Overland, ii. 201. 

Dallas (A. G.), San Juan, Alaska, and the North- West Boundary. London, 
1873. 

Dalles (Or.), Mountaineer. 

Dawson (George M.), General Note on the Mines and Minerals, n.pl., 1877; 
Note on Some of the Most Recent Changes in Level of Coast, n.pl., 1877; 
Notes on the Glaciation of British Columbia. In Canadian Naturalist, 
vol. ix., no. 1; Report of Explorations in British Columbia. In Canada 
Geological Survey, 1875-6, 233; Superficial Geology of British Colum- 
bia, n.pl., 1878; Travelling Notes on the Surface Geology of the Pacific 
Coast, n.pl., 1878. 

Deans (James), Vancouver Island. MS. 

De Cosmos (Amor), British Columbia Governments. MS. 

De Cosmos (Amor), Speech on De Horsey's Report, Feb. 18, 1878. Ottawa, 
1878; Speech on Esquimalt Graving Dock and Canadian Pacific R. R., 
Feb. 21, 1878. Ottawa, 1878. 

De Groot (Henry), British Columbia; its Condition and Prospects, etc. San 
Francisco, 1859. 

De Smet (P. J.), Letters and Sketches. Philadelphia, 1843; Missions de 
rOregon. (rand, n.d.; Oregon Missions. New York, 1847; Voyages aux 
Montagues Rocheuses. Lille, 1859; Westei-u Missions and Missionaries. 
New York, 1863. 

Directories, British Columbia and Victoria, Howard and Barnett; Victoria, 
Mallandaine. 

Dodge (Richard Irving), The Plains of the Great West. New Y^'ork, 1877. 

Douglas (Sir James), Addresses and Memorials upon the Occasion of the 
Retirement of. Victoria, 1864. 

Douglas (Sir James), Diary of Gold Discovery on Eraser River. In Douglas' 
Private Papers. MS. 

Douglas (Sir James), Journal, 1840-1. MS. 

Douglas (Sir James), Official Correspondence. In Corn wallis' New El Dorado, 
31.7. 



xxvi AUTHORITIES QUOTED. 

Douglas (.Sir James), Private Papers. 1st and 2d series. MS. 2 vols. 

Douglas (Sir James), Voyages to the North West Coast. In Id. Journal. 

Douglas (William), A Summary Historical and Political of the British Set- 
tlements in North America. London, 1755; Voyage of the Iphigenia. 
In Meares' Voy. Edit. Lond., 1790. 

Downie ( W. ), Explorations in Jarvis Inlet and Desolation Sound. In Lond. 
Geog. Soc., Jour., xxxi. 249. 

Dunn (John), History of the Oregon Territory. London, 1844; The Oregon 
Territory and the British N. American Fur Trade. Philadelphia, 1845. 

Edinburgh Review. Edinburgh, 1802 et seq. 

Elisa (Francisco), Voyage 1791, Extracts from. In Papers relating to Treaty 

of Wash., V. 176; also in Reply of the United States, 97. 
Evans (Elwood), Re-annexation of British Columbia to the United States. 

Olympia, 1870. 
Evans (Elwood), Eraser River Excitement. MS. and Scraps. 
Evans (Elwood), History of Oregon. MS. 
Evans (Taliesin), British Columbia. In Overland, iv. 258. 

Ferry (J. M.), and G. J. Wright, Map and Guide to Cariboo Gold Mines. 
San Francisco, 1882. 

Fery (Jules), Gold Searches. MS. 

Findlay (Alexander G.), Directory for the Navigation of the Pacific Ocean. 
London, 1851. 

Finlayson (Roderick), Vancouver Island and Northwest Coast. MS. 

Fitzgerald (James Edward), Charter and Proceedings of Hudson Bay Co., 
with Reference to Vancouver's Island. Loudon, 1849. 

Fleming (Sandford), Memorial of the People of Red River to the British and 
Canadian Governments. Ottawa, 1863. See Canadian Pacific Railv^ay. 

Forbes (Charles), Vancouver Island; its Resources and Capabilities. Vic- 
toria, 1862. 

Foster (J. W.), The Mississippi Valley. Chicago, 1869. 

Franchere (Gabriel), Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of Amer- 
ica, 1811-14. Redfield, 1854. 

Eraser (Simon), First Journal from April 12 to July 18, 1806. MS 

Eraser (Simon), Letters, 1806-7. MS 

Eraser (Simon), Second Journal from May 30 to June 10, 1808. MS. 

Fremont (John C), Narrative of Exploring Expedition to Rocky Mountains. 
New York, 1849. 

Gibbs (George), Indian Affairs, Report on, March 4, 1854. In Pac. R. E. 
Repts., i. 402. 

Good (John B.), British Columbia. MS. 

Good (John B. ), St Paul's Mission, n.pl., n.d. 

Goodyear ( W. A. ), Coal Mines of the Western Coast of the U. S. San Fran- 
cisco, 1877. 

Grant (George M.), Ocean to Ocean. Canada, 1873; Toronto, i877. 

Grant (W. C. ), Description of Vancouver Island. In Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., 
xxvii. 268; Remarks on Vancouver Island. In Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., 
xxxi. 208. 

Gray (W. H.), A History of Oregon, 1792-1849. Portland, 1870. 

Greenhow (Robert), History of Oregon and California. Boston, 1844; Lon- 
don, 1844; Boston, 1845; New York, 1845; Boston, 1847. 

Grover (Lafayette), Oregon, Notable Things. MS. 

Hakluyt Society. Hudson's Bay, Geography of. London, 1850. 

Hancock (Samuel), Thirteen Years' Residence on the Northwest Coast. MS. 

Hansard (T. C), Parliamentary Debates from 1803. London, 1812-77. [S. 

F. Law Libi-ary.] 
Harmon (Daniel Williams), Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North 

America. Audover, 1820. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED. xxvU 

Harnett (Legli), Two Lectures on British Columbia. Victoria, 1S68. 

Harper's New Monthly Magazine. New York, 1856 et seq. 

Harvey (Arthur), A .Statistical Account of British Columbia. Ottawa, 18G7. 

Harvey (Mrs Daniel), Life of John McLoughlin. MS. 

Hayes (Benjamin), Scrap Books, 1850-74. 129 vols. Mining. 13 vols. 

Hazlitt (William Carew), British Columbia and Vancouver's Island. London, 
1858; Great Gold Fields of Cariboo. London, 1862. 

Hector, Mining in tlie Upper Columbia River Basin. 

Hines (Henry Youle), Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition. 
Toronto, 1859, folio; Canadian Red River Expedition, etc. London, 
1830. 2 vols. ; Papers relative to the Exploration of the Country, Reports 
of Progress. London, 1859, folio. 2 vols. 

Hines (Gustavus), Oregon and its Institutions. New York; Oregon: Its His- 
tory, Condition, etc. Buffalo, 1851; Voyage round the World. Buffalo, 
1850. 

Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries. Boston, etc., 1857-69. 15 vols. 

Hittell (John S. ), The Commerce and Industries of the Pacific Coast. San 
Francisco, 1882. 4to. 

Honolulu, Polynesian, 1857 et seq.; Sandwich Island News, 1846 et seq. 

Hooper (W. H.), Ten :Months among the Tents of the Tuski. London, 1853. 

Horetzky (Charles), Canada on the Pacific. Montreal, 1874. 

Howard and Burnett. See Directories. British Columbia and Victoria. 

Howison (N. M.). Report on Coast, Harbors, etc., of Oregon 1846. [30th 
Cong., 1st Sfss., H. Miss. Doc. 29.] Washington, 1848. 

Hudson's Bay Company, Extent and Value of Possessory Rights. [Montreal, 
1849]; Plans Referred to in the Report from the Select Committee. 
London, 1857; Report from Special Committee. London, 1857; Return 
to an Addi-ess, 16 March, 1857. n.pl., n.d. 

Hudson's Bay Company's Charter and License to Trade. Papers relative to. 
London, 1859. 

Hudson Bay and Puget Sound Agricultural Companies, British and Ameri- 
can Joint Commission. Montreal, etc., 18C8. 4 vols. ; Evidence for t':a 
United States. Washington, 18(57; Memorials presented to the Commis- 
sioners Aprd 17, 1865. Washington, 1865; Supplement and Appendix 
to Arguments in Behalf of the U. S. n. pi., n. d. 

Hunt's Mercliant's Magazine. New York, 1839 et seq. 

Iim-ay (James F. ), Sailing Directions for the West Coast of N. America. Lon- 
don, 1868 

Isbister (Alex. K.), A Proposal for a New Penal Settlement, ^ondon, 1850. 

Isherwood (B. F.), Report of Experiments on Coals of the Pacific Coast. 
[42d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 206.] Washington, 1872. 

Jarves (James J.), History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands. Boston, 
1843; London, 1843; Honolulu, 1872; Boston, 1844. 

Johnson (R. B.), Very Far West Iudec<l. London, 1872. 

Joly (H. G.), Report on Forestry and Forests of Canada. In Canadian Agri- 
cultural Report, 1877, 1. 

Kane (Paul), Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of N. America- 
London, 1859. 
Kingston (W. H. Cr.), Snow-shoes and Canoes. London, etc., 1877. 
Kirchhoff (Theodor), Reisebilder und Skizzen. N. Y., 1875-6. 2 vols. 
Knight's Scrap Books, A Collection of 40 volumes. 

Langevin (H. L.), Report on British Columbia. Ottawa, 1872. 
Langley (Henry G. ), Trade of the Pacific. San Francisco, 1870. 
Lee (Daniel), and J. H. Frost. Ten Years in Oregon. New York, 1844. 
Levi (Leone), Annals of British Legislation. London, 1856-68. 18 vols. 
Lewis (Philip H.), Coal Discoveries in Washington Territory. MS. 



xx^'Hi AUTHORITIES QUOTED. 

Lewis (Herbert George), Reminiscences in British Columbia Sketches. MS. 

Lewis (Meriwether), and William Clarke, Expedition to the Sources of tlie 
Missouri and Pacific Ocean, 1804-6. Philadelphia, 1814. 2 vols. ; New 
York, 1842. 2 vols.; Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and 
across the American Continent. London, 1814. 4to; London, 1815; 
numerous other editions. 

Lockington (W. N.), Notes on Pacific Coast Fish and Fisheries. n.pl. 1879. 

Log of the Sir James Douglas. In Canada, Marine and Fisheries. 1876-7. 

London, Chronicle, Morning Post, Punch, Spectator, Times. 

London Geogi'aphical Society, Journal. London, 1831-70. 40 vols. 

Lord (John Keast), The Naturalist in Vancouver's Island, etc. London, 1866. 
2 vols 

McClellan (R. Guy), The Golden State. San Francisco, 1872. 

McDonald (Archibald), Canoe Voyage from Hudson's Bay to Pacific. Ottawa, 

1872. 
McDonald (D. G. Forbes), British Columbia and Vancouver Island. London, 

1863; Lecture on British Columbia. London, 18(33. 
McDonald ( vV. John), Narrative. In British Columbia Sketches. MS. 
McDonald (J. L.), Hidden Treasures. Gloucester, 1871. 
Mcfarlane (.James), The Coal Regions of America. New York, 1873. 
Macfie (Matthew), Vancouver Island and British Columbia. London, 1865. 
Macgregor (John), Commercial Statistics. London, 1850. 5 vols. 
McKay (James William), Recollections of Hudson's Bay Company. MS. 
Mackenzie (Alexander), Voyage from Jvlontreal to the Frozen and Pacific 

Oceans, 1789-93. London, 1801. 4to; New York, 1814. 
Mackenzie (E.), Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of one 

U. S. etc. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1819. 
McKinlay (Archibald), Narrative of a Chief Factor of Hudson Bay Company. 

MS. 
McLean (John), Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson Bay 

Territory. London, 1849 
McLeod, Peace River. See McDonald (Archibald), Canoe Voyage. 
McLoughlin (John), Priv^ate Papers, 1825-56. MS. 
Macoun (John), Geological and Topographical Notes. In Canada, Geol. 

Survey, 1875-6, 87; Pi^eport on Botanical Features of the Country. In 

Id., 110. 
Mallandaine. See Directory, Victoria. 
Malte-Bran (V. A.), Precis de la Geographic Universelle. Bruxelles, 1839. 

6 vols. 
Martin (R. Montgomery), History of the British Colonies. London, 1835. 5 

vols; The Hudson's Bay Territories and Vancouver's Island. London, 

1849. 
]\larysville (Cal.), Appeal, Telegraph. 
Mathias (Franklin), Eraser and Thompson River Gold Mines. In Olympia 

Pion. and Dem., May 14, 1858. 
Jklatthew (J. II.), The North- West Boundary. In Overland, vi. 297. 
Matthieu (F. X.), Refugee, Trapper, and Settler. MS. 
Mayne (R. C), Four Years in British Columbia. London, 18G2; Report of 

a Journey in British Columbia. In Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxxi. 213. 
Meares (John), Voyages made in 1788-9 from China to the N. W. Coast of 

America. London, 1790; Id., 1791. 2 vols. ; other editions. 
Milton (Viscount), History of the San Juan Water Boundary Question. Lon- 
don, 1869. 
Milton (Viscount), and W. B. Cheadle. The North West Passage by Land. 

London, 1865. 
Mining Magazine. New York, 1853 et seq. 
ISIinto (John), Early Days of Oregon. IMS. 

Missionary Life in the Nineteenth Century, Pictures of. London, 1858. 
Lloberly (Walter), Journey to Gold Mines. In Victoria Gazette, Feb, 17, 1859. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED. xxix 

Moffat (Hamilton), Jom-nal of a Tour across Vancouver Island to Nootka 

Sound. In Pemberton's V. I., 143. 
Morgan (Lewis H. ), The American Beaver and his Works. Philadelphia, 187S. 
Muir (Michel), Recollections. In British Columbia Sketches. MS. 

Nanaimo, Free Press, Gazette, and Tribune. 

Nevada (Cal.), Gazette, Journal. 

Newberry (J. S.), Origin of Prairies. In American Scientific Assoc, Trans., 
1866. 

New Tacoma, North Pacific Coast Times. 

New Westminster, British Columbia Examiner, British Columbian, Dominion 
Pacific Herald, Government Gazette, Mainland Guardian, New Rei)ublic 
Journal. 

New York, Herald, Journal of Commerce, Methodist, Sun, Times, Tribune. 

Niles' Register. Baltimore, etc., 1811-49. 76 vols. 

Nind (Philip Henry), Report of Diggings on Antler Creek. In British Colum- 
bia Further Papers, iv. 

North American Review. Boston, 1819 et seq. 

North Pacific Review. San Francisco, 1862-3. 2 vols. 

Northwest Boundary, Discussion of, etc. Washington, 1868. 

Ogden (Peter Skeen), and James Douglas, Letter respecting Coal in Vancouver 

Island. In Martins, H. B., 37. 
Olympia, Echo, Columbian, Pioneer and Democrat, Puget Sound Courier, 

Transcript, Washington Standard. 
Olympia Club Conversazione. MS. 
Oregon Citj-, Enterprise, Oregon Argus, Spectator. 
Ottawa Times. 

Overland Monthly. San Francisco, 1868-75. 15 vols. 
Overland Route, Report from a Select Committee. St Paul, 1S5S; Sketch of 

the Proposed Line. London, 1858; Ottawa, 1871. 

Pacific Railroad Reports. Washington, 1855-60. 4to. 13 vols. 

Palliser (John), Papers relative to the Exploration of British North America. 
London, 1859. 4to; Further Papers. London, 1860. 4to; Index and Maps. 
London, 1865. 4to. 

Palmer (H. Spencer), Report on the Harrison and Lilloet Route. In London 
Geog. Soc, Jour., xxxi. 224; Report of a Journey of Survey from Vic- 
toria to Fort Alexander. New Westminster, 1863; Report on Portions 
of the Williams Lake and Cariboo Districts. New Westminster, 1863. 

Papers relating to the Treaty of Washington, vol. v., Berlin Ai'bitratiou. 
Washington, 1872. 

Parker (Samuel), Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains. 
Ithaca, 1838; Id., 1840; Auburn, 1842; Id., 1846. 

Peace River Mines, Historj^ of. In Victoria Weekly Colonist, Feb. 23, 1870. 

Pemberton (J. Desj)ard), Facts and Figures relating to Vancouver Island. 
London, 1860. 

Perkins (James H.), Annals of the West. St Louis, 1850. 

Petermann (A. ), Mittheilungen aus Justus geographischer. Gotha, 1872. 

Pioneer (The). San Francisco, 1854-5. 4 vols. 

Poole (Francis), Queen Charlotte Islands. London, 1872. 

Portland Newspapers, Advertiser, Bulletin, Commercial, Commercial Re- 
porter, Deutche Zeitung, Herald, New Northwest, Oregon Herald, Ore- 
gonian, Pacific Christian Advocate, Standard, West Shore. 

Post (Aaron), Statement. In Victoria Gazette, July 4, 1858. 

Quarterly Review. London, 1809 et seq. 

Rattray (Alexander), Vancouver Island and British Columbia. Lond., 1842. 
Rawlings (Thomas), The Confederation of the British N. American Provinces. 
Loudon, 1865. 



XXX AUTHORITIES QUOTED. 

Red River Settlement, Correspondence Relative to the Recent Disturbances 
in. Loudon, 1870. folio. 

Remy (Jules), and Julius Brenchley, a Journey to Great-Salt-Lake City. 
London, 1861. 2 vols. 

Reply of the United States to the Case of the Government of Her Britannic 
Majesty, n. pi., n.d. 4to. 

Richards (George H.), The Vancouver Island Pilot. London, 1864. 

Richardson (James), Report on the Coal Fields of the East Coast of Vancou- 
ver Island. In Canada, Geol. Survey, 1871-2, 73. 

Richardson (Sir John)* Arctic Searching Expedition. London, 1851. 2 vols. 

Ritz (Philip), Great Northern Interior. MS. 

Roberts (George B.), Recollections of Hudson's Bay Co. MS. 

Roseburg, Pantagraph, Plaindealer. 

Ross (Alexander), Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon. London, 
1849; The Fur Hunters of the Far West. London, 1855. 2 vols. 

Rowe (G.), The Colonial Empire of Great Britain, pt. i. London, n.d. 

Sacramento (Cal.), Bee, Record, Record Union. 

Salem (Or.), American Unionist, Capital Chronicle, Mercury, Oregon States- 
man, Willamette Farmer. 
San Bernardino (Cal.), Guardian. 
San Francisco Newspapers, Alta California, Call, Chronicle, Coast Review, 

Evening Bulletin,- Herald, Mining and Scientific Press, News Letter, 

Post, Scientific Press, Times. 
Sawney's Letters: or Cariboo Rhymes. 18G4-8. 

Seattle (Wash. ), Intelligencer, Pacific Tribune, Puget Sound Dispatch. 
Seemanu (Berthold), Narrative of the Voyage of H. M. S. Herald, 1845-51. 

London, 1853. 2 vols. 
Selwyn (A. R. C). Sec Canada Geological Survey. 
Seward (W. H.), Speeches on Alaska, Vancouver, and Oregon, Aug. 1869. 

Washmgton, 1869. 
Simmonds (P. L.), Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions. Buffalo, 1852. 
Simpson (Alexander), The Oregon Territory. London, 1846. 
Simpson (Sir George), Narrative of a Journey roixnd the World. London, 

1847. 2 vols. 
Snyder, Letter from Yale, Aug. 17th. In Victoria Gazette, Aug. 24, 1858. 
Sjjroat (Gilbert Malcolm), British Columbia. London, 1873; London, 187.3; 

Canada and the Empire. London, 1873; Scenes and Studies of Savage 

Life. London, 1868. 
Steilacoom (Wash.), Puget Sound Express. 
Stuart (Granville), Montana as it is. New York, 1865. 
Stuart (John), Autograph Notes. Torres, 1842. 
Sutro (A.), Review of Eraser River, etc. In San Francisco Bulletin, Aug. 27, 

1858. 
Swan (James G.), The Haidah Indians of Queen Charlotte Island. Wash., 

1874. 
Swan (James ^I.), Colonizations. MS. 

Tache (Macgregor), Sketch of the Northwest of America. Montreal, 1870. 

Tarbell (Frank), Victoria, Life and Travels. MS. 

Taylor (Alexander S.), Historical Summary of Lower California. In Browne's 

Min. Res. 
Taylor (James W.), Northwest British America. St Paul, 18G0. 
Tennant (Thos.), Nautical Almanac, Tide Register, etc. San Francisco, 

1877. 
Thornton (J. Quinn), Oregon and California in 1848. New York, 1848, 2 vols. 
Thornton (J. Quinn), Oregon History. MS. 
Tod (John), New Caledonia. MS. 

Tolmie (William Fraser), Canadian Pacific Railway Routes. Victoria, 1877. 
Tolmie (William F.), Puget Sound and Northwest Coast. MS. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED. xxxi 

Townsend (John K.), Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky Mountains. 

Philadelphia, 1839. 
Trumau (Benjamin C), Occidental Sketches. San Francisco, 1881. 
Trutch (Joseph), Coinpliuientary Dinner to, April 10, 1871. Montreal, 1871; 

Map of British Columbia, 1871. 
Turner (Wm M.), Gold Hunting on Qteen Charlotte's Island. In Overland, 

xiv. 167. 

Umatilla, Columbia Press. 

Umfreville (Edward), The Present State of Hudson's Bay. London, 1790. 

United States Exploring Expedition. [Wilkes.] Philadelphia, 1844^58. 4to. 

17 vols.; folio. 8 vols. 
United States Government Documents; Bureau of Statistics; Commerce, 

Foreign and Domestic; Commerce and Navigation; Commercial Rela 

tions; Indian Afifairs. 

Vancouver (Wash.), Independent Register. 

Vancouver Island, Copies or Extracts of any Despatches on Subject of Estab- 
lishment of a Representative Assembly. London, 1857. folio; Explo- 
ration, 1 8G4. n. pi. , n. d. ; Returns to three Addresses. London, 1 849. 
folio; Supreme Court of Civil Jvistice, Order in Court constituting. Vic- 
toria, 18(j5; The Necessity of Reform. Victoria, 1859. 

Victor (Frances Fuller), All over Oregon and Washington. San Francisco, 
1872; River of the West. Hartford, 1870. 

Victoria, British Colonist, Cariboo Sentinel, Chronicle, Express, Gazette, 
Press, Standard. 

Vowell (A. W.), British Columbia Mines. MS, 

Waddington (Alfred), The Fraser ISIines Vindicated. Victoria, 1858; Over- 
land Route through British North America. London, 1868; Sketch of 
the Proposed Line of Overland Railroad. Ottawa, 1871. 

Waldo (Daniel), Critiques. MS. 

'\^'alla Walla, Statesman. 

Warre (Henry), and M. Vavasseur, Report, in Martin's Hudson's Bay. 

Weed (Charles E.), Queen Charlotte Island Expedition. MS. 

Westminster Review. London, 1824 et seq. 

White (Elijah), Ten Years in Oregon. Ithaca, 1850. 

Whymper (Frederick), Travel and Adventure in Alaska. New York, 1869. 

Wilkes (Charles), Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition. Philadel- 
phia, 1844. 4to. 3 vols.; Philadelphia, 1845. 5 vols.; London, 1845. 

Wilson (Elizabeth), Recollections. In Oregon Sketches. MS. 

Wilson (William), Dominion of Canada, etc. Victoria, 1874. 

Wiuthro;) (Theodore), The Canoe and the Saddle. Boston, 1863. 

Woods (W. H.), Correspondence from McCaw's Rapids In Puget Sound 
Herald, May 14, 1858. 

Work (John), Journal, 1824. MS. 

Wright, Cariboo. In Overland, iii. 524 

Yale, British Columbia Examiner. 




l,Oll£lIii<le Wcsl from Greonwlrh 



HISTORY 

OF 

BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



CHAPTER I. 

SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

The Spaniards ox the Coast of British Columbia— Perez, Heceta, and 
Arteaga — Expedition of James Cook — Hanna — Maurelle— La Pe- 

BOCSE — PORTLOCK AND DiXON — GuiSE — LOWRIE — BARCLAY — MeARES— 

Gray — Kendrick — Martinez— Haro—Colnett — Douglas- Elisa — 
Quimper — Galiano and Valdes — Bodega y Cuadra — Vancouver. 

The history of British Columbia comprises six dis- 
tinct eras. First, the discoveries, claims, disputations, 
and diplomacies relative to the ownership and division 
of the domain, commonly referred to as Nootka Affairs. 
The second epoch begins with the coming of the fur- 
traders by land, by way of Peace Piver, first the 
people of the Northwest Company, hard followed by 
servants of the Hudson's Bay Company; and continues 
until 1849, when colonization and colonial government 
begin on Vancouver Island. The third term, during 
which the Hudson's Bay Company are still everywhere 
dominant, ruling Vancouver Island in the queen's 
name, and the Mainland in their own name, lasts until 
1858, when the gold discovery overturns the existing 
order of things, and raises the Mainland into a colony. 
The fourth historic period, during which there are two 
colonies and two governors, concludes with the union 

HibT. Beix. Col. 1 ( 1 ) 



2 SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

of the Island and Mainland under one colonial gover- 
ment in 1866. The affairs of the consolidated colony 
constitute the fifth era, terminating in confederation 
with Canada in 1871. What follows may be called, 
at this present writing, the sixth and last period. 

For more than three hundred years after the begin- 
ning of European occupation on the North American 
Pacific seaboard, its largest island remained practi- 
cally untouched. 

It is true that since Cortes built vessels at Zacatula 
for South Sea explorations, Fuca and Maldonado had 
made their hypothetical observations of the Anian 
opening, had told the much expectant world the won- 
drous tale of the long looked for ocean highway, 
found at last, which should let pass vessels through 
the continent, straight from Europe to India, wdiich 
passage, indeed, this monster isle would seem some- 
what inconveniently to obstruct; it is true, that some 
two hundred years after these reputed first discov- 
eries of the Spaniards, navigators had surveyed the 
Island's shores, that British, Russian, and American 
trading-vessels had anchored in its bays and inlets, 
and tliat on its seaward side many strange scenes, 
many thrilling tragedies had been performed — it was 
there that occurred the first pitched quarrel between 
Spain and England for the territories adjacent; and 
there the Boston and the Tonquiii were captured, and 
their crews massacred — yet all who hitherto had come 
had gone their way, leaving to the aboriginal tenants 
their sea-skirted domain in all its primeval quietude. 

More than any happening thus far on the North- 
west Coast, more than the later bluster at Fort 
Astoria, or the bristling at Stikeen, the seizing and 
sending to San Bias of two English vessels by Mar- 
tinez, in 1789, and the planting of a Spanish battery 
at Nootka caused commotion among the bellicous 
nations of Europe, as has been fully shown in my 
Illstorij of the Northwest Coast. 



SPMX, ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND RUSSIA. 3 

Perez, Heccta, and Cuadra had explored and taken 
possession of the Nootka country for Spain in 1774-9, 
at which time there Avere no signs of European oc- 
cupation in this vicinity. James Cook, who touched 
at Nootka in 1778, and La Perouso, who visited the 
coast in 1786, brouMit to the knowledcfe of the world 
the unappropriated w^ealth of furs which floated in 
these waters, and the arrival of the Russians on 



^ 


^'OO 






m>\ 


17 - 


^^^^^' 














'"-=, 


< 


^ 


\ -(ABLE HILL 

.'• perpetua 


10 ' 
15 

11 ^ 


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•CGreejory 


13 '^ 


■-'.■!2 


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23C. 237 \ 


2;i8\ 



Cook's Map, 1788. 

American shores. For several years this source of 
wealth remained untouched, though much ill feeling 
was caused among rival claimants. In 1788 Spain 
was induced to send Martinez and Haro northward, 
and later occurred the disputes at Nootka, all of 
which have been full}^ related in previous volumes of 
my works. ^ 



England had offered twenty thousand pounds to the 
British subject who should discover and sail through 

* Besides the History of the Northwexl Coast, see early volumes of History 
of Oreijon, IHtslori/ of California, ami History of ''k North Mexican States. 



4 SUilMAKY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

any passage uniting the Atlantic and Pacific, north of 
the fifty-second parallel. Under instructions carefully 
to examine the coast north of latitude 65° only, James 
Cook strikes the shore of Drake's New Albion just 
above latitude 44°, coasts northward giving names to 
capes Perpetua, Gregory,^ Foulweather, and Flattery; 
closes his eyes to the Piver Columbia and to Fuca 
Strait, pronouncing them non-existent;^ and enters 
an inlet which he names King George Sound, but 
which the natives call Nootka.^ Skins of the bear, fox, 
wolf, deer, polecat, marten, raccoon, and sea-otter are 
brought by the guileless savage, who is eager for brass 
and iron, caring nothing for glass beads, thereby show- 
ing his knowledge of metals, and his appreciation of 
their value. Continuing his search for a strait north- 
westward, the illustrious navigator departs from the 
coast, wilfully oblivious of the existence of the great 
islands and entrances adjacent.^ 

Following Cook, Captain Hanna crosses from China 
in 1785, and again in the following year he appears in 

^ Arago. 

^ Which seems a little singular; for though his search proper for inter- 
oceanic communication did not begin at this point, yet being on the coast for 
the express purpose of finding round or through it a passage by water, we 
should hardly expect to find the famous discoverer passing by the mouth of 
the Columbia while writing of the discoveries of Martin de Aguilar in 1(503: 
' It is worth observing that in the very latitude where we now were geogra- 
phers have been pleased to place a large entrance or strait, the discovery of 
which they take upon them to ascribe to the same navigator; whereas nothing 
more is mentioned in the account of his voyage than his having seen, in this 
situation, a large river, which he would have entered, but was prevented 
by the currents.' Still more strange is it when oflf Cape Flattery, with a 
strait under his very eyes, he should press northward, saying: 'It is in this 
very latitude where we now were that geographers have placed the pretended 
strait of Juan de Fuca. But we saw nothing like it; nor is there the least 
probability that ever any such thing existed.' CooFs Voy., ii. 2G1-3. Con- 
sidering his mission, Captain Cook's survey of the coast in these latitudes was 
certainly superficial. By chance he was correct in his conchisions, though it 
would have been in a little better taste to have avoided the supercilious strain 
in which he pronounces the discoveries of tlie Spaniards forgeries. 

* Between what he calls Point Breakers, which he places in latitude 49° 
15', and what he calls Woody Point, which he places in latitude 50", 'the 
shore forms a large bay, which I called Hope Bay; hoping, from the ajipear- 
ance of the land to find in it a good harbour.' Cook's Voy., ii. 264. 

^ ' We were now passing the place where geographers have placed the pre- 
tended strait of Ailmiral de Fonte. For my own part, I give no credit to such 
vague and improbable stories, that carry their own confutation along with 
them.' Cook's Voy., ii. 343. It is but fair to add, that when in this latitude a 
gale obliged him to keep well out to sea. 



PORTLOCK AND DIXOX. 5 

the Sea-Otter, and conducts a profitable trade with 
the natives of Nootka.*' And now is formed the King 
George's Sound Company, which is to monopoHze the 
Northwest Coast fur-trade; and there come to the 
coast in 1787, by way of the Hawaiian Islands and 
Alaska, Captain Portlock with the ship King George, 
and in the Queen Charlotte George Dixon, the latter 
visiting and giving names to Cloak Bay, Hippa 
Island, Dixon Strait, and Queen Charlotte Islands, 
at which last named place alone he secures eighteen 
hundred and twenty-one fine otter-skins. Then ar- 
riving off Nootka, he sails away without entering/ 
This same year we find another quite successful 
English trader at Nootka Sound in the ship Imperial 
Eagle, Captain Barclay,® who coasts to Barclay Sound, 
giving his name to the place, sends thence a boat's 
crew into what was later named Fuca Strait, after 
which, dropping below Flattery, some of his men 
are murdered near where a portion of Bodega y 
Cuadra's crew in 1775 suffered a like fate. 

The following summer, Meares arrives in the Felice, 
and after erecting a house at Friendly Cove,*^ in 
Nootka Sound, and leaving there a party to build a 
vessel, he proceeds southward, visits the village of 

* Captain Guise, in the Experiment, was also there in the summer of 17SG, 
as ■well as Captain Lowrie of the ship Captain Cook, from which latter vessel 
the surgeon, an Irishman named John McKey, being ill was placed on shore, 
where he remained for more than one year. He was stripped of his clothing by 
the natives, and made to conform to their customs. He learned somewhat of 
their language, ' made frequent incursions into tlie interior parts of the country 
about King Cieorge's Sound, and did not tliink any part of it was the conti- 
nent of America, but a chain of detached islands.' The man and his opinions, 
however, were derided by the navigators. The following year, 1787, the 
Prince of Wales, Captain Colnett, the l^rlnres/i Royal, Captain Duncan, and 
the Imperial Eajle, Captain Barclay, were at Nootka. 

' In his preface Dixon scourges }*Iaurcllc for failing to do what Cook failed 
to do; he is elated, himself, for having made the discovery of Queen Charlotte 
Islands, for which, indeed, he is entitled to all praise. It was, however, only 
surmise \vith him, as he never circumnavigated the island. Its complete sep- 
aration from the mainland was ascertained by Duncan the following year, 
who called the isles adjacent, as was then the fashion, from his ship, Princess 
Iloyal Archipelago. See vol. i. p. 180 for Dixon's map. 

^ Written also Berkely. 

*See Greenhow's Or. and Cat., 151. 



6 SUMMARY OF EARLIEST A'OYAGES. 

Wicananish in Clayoquot Sound, which he names 
Port Cox/" passes on to the entrance of Fuca Strait — 
so named by him — and down the coast to Destruc- 
tion Island/^ Shoalwater and Deception bays, and 
capes Disappointment and Lookout/" off which latter 
point he turns ' and retraces his course to Barclay 
Sound, which he enters, and anchors in a bay to 
which he gives the name of Port Effingham.^^ There 
the natives bring to him a plentiful supply of salmon, 
shell-fish, wild onions, and the fruits of the forest. 
Under the first officer, Pobert Duffin, the long-boat 
with twelve men is sent to explore the strait, and 
enters several coves and harbors along the southern 
shore of Vancouver Island to trade. After sailing- 
some thirty leagues, far enough to perceive that the 
water to tlie east-north-east increased rather than 
diminished^ ^^ the party is furiously attacked by na- 
tives in two canoes, and driven back wounded to the 
ship; after which Meares returns with his ship to 
Nootka, where, not long after, the Ijohigenia, Captain 
Douglas, ai\d the sloop Washington, Captain Gray, 
arrive. The new vessel is christened the Northwest 
America,^'" and launched. 



If" ' In honor of our friend John Henry Cox, Esquire. ' 

^^ Where was situated the ' village of Queenhithe, ' and some seven miles 
distant ' the town of Queenuitett, ' whose inhabitants were man-eating people. 
The country round Cape Flattery he calls Tatootche, and the island Tatoot- 
che Island. Having carefully searched for the Rio de San Roque of the 
Spaniards, he might now safely assert that no such stream exists. 

'- To which he gives their names, as well as to Cape Shoalwater, south of 
the entrance, and to Mount Olympus. This coast he calls New Albion, fol- 
lowing Drake and Cook. 

1^ ' The port is sufficiently capacious to contain an hundred sail of shijjs, 
and so fortunately sheltered as to secure them from any storm. The anchor- 
age is also good, being a soft mud, and the watering place perfectly conve- 
nient.' Meares' Voy., 172. 

^* ' Such an extraordinary circumstance filled us with strange conjectures 
as to the extremity of this strait, which we concluded, at all events, could 
not be any great distance from Hudson's Bay.' Meares' Voy., 179. 

^^ ' Being the first bottom ever built and launched in this part of the globe. ' 
Meares, Voy., 220, gives a full-page illustration of the launching of this craft 
amidst the flying of flags, the boom of cannon, and the shovits of the savages. 
In the background is the two-story house erected for the use of his men while 
engaged in building the vessel, and in the distance, round a high rocky prom- 
ontory, is seen the Indian village, with the sloop Washimjtoi anchored in 
front of it. 



J^IEARES AST) GRAY, 




IJ.^milj/ Bay 
.-.P.Doffine 
•<V-Pt.Hav.kr.bu7 



\ShMl Water Bay 
'C.Shoal Water 



n.ctjtion Sat/ 
|L,C.Grenville 
ji^ ^<uiVl*an<f Bay 




Meakes' Map. 



8 SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

While yet are lying at Nootka the Ipldgenia, Felice, 
and Northwest America, which in due time take their 
departure, a vessel from Boston enters the harbor, 
the Columbia, Captain Kendrick. This vessel and 
the Wasldngton winter at Nootka, 1788-9.^^ On his 
way up the coast, Gray had been attacked by the 
natives at Tillamook Bay. 

Meanwhile, violent measures were adopted by the 
Spaniards, and directed against the British traders 
at Nootka, the distempers of which reached Madrid 
and London, and culminated in the ISTootka conven- 
tion, 1790. The fortification erected at Nootka by 
Martinez in 1789 was temporarily abandoned before 
the end of the year, but not before the arrival of Gon- 
zalo de Haro and the seizure of the Argonaut, Colnett 
commanding, the Iphigenia, which had returned to 
Nootka in charge of William Douglas, the North- 
west America, and the Princess Roycd, for attempting 
to found establishments within Spanish dominions. 
Martinez sent two of his prizes to Mexico, while 
Haro in the San Carlos prosecuted discoveries. The 
following spring, Nootka was reoccupied by the Span- 
iards under Elisa, who established there a Spanish 
settlement, for which supplies were brought from San 
Bias by the Californlan transports. 

This same year, 1790, Manuel Quimper, command- 
ing the Princesa Real, one of the three vessels under 
Elisa, sailed from Nootka the 31st of May to continue 
the exploration possibly begun by Haro in Fuca Strait 
the year previous. Touching at several points on the 

^^ Ou Meares' map the entire seaboard from Fuca Strait to Alaska is laid 
down as an island, or a group of islands, called the Northern Archipelago 
and Princess Royal Islands, \vea.t of which are tlie ' Queen Charlotte's Isles, 
so named by Captain Dixon in 1787, first discovered by captains Lowrie and 
Guise in 17^6; ' and on the eastern side, 'sketch of the track of the American 
sloop Washhvjton, in autumn 1789, 'while beyond to the eastward is still 'the 
sea, ' and yet farther ' land seen. ' On his way up the coast. Gray had attempted 
to enter the Columbia, but failed; and the following summer, while yet in 
command of the Wa.sliiixjton, he had explored the eastern shore of Queen 
Charlotte Island, which he called Washington Island. Then, taking com- 
mand of the Cohonhia, Gray returned to Boston; and in a second voyage to 
the Northwest Coast entered and named the Columbia River. 



MANUEL QUIMPER. 



south-west side of the Island before visited by trading- 
vessels, on the 11th of June he entered and named 
Port San Juan, where he remained four days. Thence 
continuing, he passed two points, which he called San 
Eusebio and San Antonio, and entered Soke Inlet, 
which ho named Revilla Gigedo in honor of the vice- 
roy of Mexico. Landing, he made short excursions 
in various directions, and, following his instructions, 
on the 23d of June he took formal possession of the 
country for the King of Spain. Contrary winds kept 
him in this port until the 28th, when, setting sail, he 



vr^c 



'■^. 



^ Pto.de 

Kcvilla Gigedo 






Quimper's ^L\p 

continued east -south -east, and 



passed the present 
Beecher Bay, and the same day entered between three 
or four inlets a beautiful harbor which he named Elisa." 



"Afterward Pedder Bay. 'El mismo dia se levaron y navegando por 
rumbos proximos al Icssuestc, costearon dos grandes ensenadas y entraron por 
cntre trcs 6 quatro islillas y otra grande inniediata A la ticrra hasta hallarse 
dentro de una bella bahia que llamaron de Elisa, en dondo anclaron y fucron 
los pilotos al reconocimiento de aquellos parajes proximos.' Qiiimper, Sei/tiuth 
llrconodmiento de la Entrada de Fiica, in Viaijes al Xorle, MS., No. II. The 
text of the original is here quite confusing, and but for the appendix, which 
somewhat modifies and explains it, one might suppose the voyagers to have 
now reached Es<|uimalt Bay. But by noticing the direction sailed, the time 
occupied, and by a careful comparsion of the relative latitudes given — Elisa 
being placed one minute farther south than Revilla Gigedo, while the next 



10 SUMMARY OF E.^LIEST VOYAGES. 

On the 30th, the vessel proceeded round to Koyal 
Bay, which Quimper called Solano ; and the same day 
he moved the ship up into Esquimalt Harbor, which 
he named Valdes. While there tlie vessel lay at an- 
chor, Quimper sent out in small boats his pilots, who, 
five leagues to the eastward, discovered besides several 
islands a broad passage extending toward the west- 
north-west, and losing itself in the distance This 
passage or strait was called Haro, in honor of his 
sailing-master. 

It was observed that a short distance to the east- 
ward of Valdes Baj^, or Esquimalt, was another bay, 
which they pronounced "a port of good shelter, water, 
and wild seeds for which the Indians came in canoes 
from the other side of the strait." This was Victoria 
Harbor, to which Quimper gave the name of Cor- 
doba. ^^ While tliere the natives brought fruit and 
roots, not having skins to trade. Indeed, says Quim- 
per, they did not need to kill animals for food, their 
rich soil providing them abundance; and as for cloth- 
ing, the tribes contiguous, even as far away as the 
mouth of Fuca Strait, were glad to bring furs, and 
give them in exchange for these natural products, of 
which they regularly laid in a winter's suj)ply. This 
quiet life, moreover, seemed to make these savages 
less ferocious than their beast-killing neighbors. ^^ 

On the 4th of July, Quimper crossed with his ves- 
sel to New Dungeness Point, which he named Santa 
Cruz, and behind which he anchored, calling the place 
Quimper Bay.^^ Soon the natives appeared with 

anchorage, -wliich wg shall find to be the entrance to Esquimalt Bay, is several 
minutes north of Eiisa, or Soke Harbor — the positions of the several stations 
become quite clear. 

^* Cordoba Bay as laid down on modern maps is misplacea; that is, if in- 
tended as the Cordoba Bay of Quimper. First, it does not correspond to the 
well-sheltered port described by Quimper; nor does it appear that either 
Quimper or his pilots ever entered Haro Strait so far. 

^'See Nail re Races, i. 174-237. ' En ciiya demora hallaron nn puerto que 
Ilaniaron de Cc3rdoba de apreciables abrigos, aguas, y semillas silvestres de 
que salian provistas algunas canoas de los puertos que se hallan fuera del 
seno.' Quimper, Sei/uwlo Beconocimknto de li Entrada de Fuca. 

-'^ ' El mismo dia por la tarde anclaron al abrigo de una punta que Uamaron 
de Santa Cruz, donde eucontrarou un abrigado puerto de poca agua propio 



TAKING POSSESSION. 11 

mussels, fish, deer meat, mats, skins, tanned leather, 
and feathered blankets to trade. The pilots, startini^ 
out in small boats, and exploring eastward, came to 
an admirable harbor,"^ which they called Bodega y 
Cuadra, with an island in front of it. The nature of 
Admiralty Inlet, which he called Ensenada do Caa- 
mano, was mistaken, and from this point, along the 
land running northward, they saw two openings, which 
tlioy named Fidalgo and Deflon." Then they re- 
turned to the vessel. On the 18th, Quimper set sail 
for Nootka, but by reason of adverse winds was 
obliged to enter Yaldes Ba^^ where he remained three 
days, when he again weighed anchor, and coasting 
the southern side of Fuca Strait toward its entrance, 
on the 24th came to Neah Ba}^, M'hich he entered, 
naming it Puerto de Nunez Gaona."^ 

Solemnly again on the 1st of August, amidst dis- 
charges of musketry and artillery, he took possession 
of the country, wishing without fail to secure it all ; 
and after repairing his vessel and sounding the ba}', 
on the 3d he sailed away for Nootka, but being pre- 
vented entrance by a gale, he proceeded to Monterey. 

The explorations of Quimper served only to whet 
the interest of the Spanish autliorities, and to con- 
firm the belief in an interoceanic strait in this quarter, 
The very next year, accordingly, Elisa received orders 
to complete this survey, and at once prepared the San 
Carlos, of sixteen guns, and the schooner Ilorcasifas, 
of seven. He left Xootka in May with the intention 
of seeking the sixtieth parallel, and thence to follow 
the coast southward to Fuca Strait, but the winds 
continued contrary, and he was obliged to sail direct 
for the Strait. Leaving the schooner on May 27th, to 
examine Carrasco Inlet,-* he proceeded w^ith the San 

para las embarcaciones pequeuas, y alii tomaron posesion Uamaudolo ile 
Quimper. ' Scjundo Iteconocimiento de la Entrada de Fuca. 

'^' Port Discovery. 

''''- The former was evidently the present Rosario Strait. 

2' Tlie native name was Quinicamet. 

'^* Barclay Sound. 



12 



SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 




Elisa's Map. 



SURVEY OF HAllO STRAIT. 13 

Carlos to Cordoba Harbor. On May 31st, the armed 
launch was despatcl led under Verdia, the second ^nloto, 
to explore Haro Strait, but returned the same day 
with the report that a fleet of canoes had surrounded 
the launch, and made such hostile demonstrations that 
the crew had been obliged to resort to fire-arms. 
Observing* more Indians on shore preparing to reen- 
force the enemy, Verdia deemed it prudent to return, 
after having sunk a big canoe and killed several natives. 

In view of tliis contretemps, Elisa resolved to 
wait for the return of the schooner before sending 
out another expedition. She arrived twelve days 
later, with an account of the archipelago and branches 
of the Carrasco Inlet. The examination of the in- 
terior channels had been effected for three leagues 
only, owing to the stormy weather and the hostility 
of the Indians, who had on three occasions to be in- 
timidated with grape-shot, fired at a high range so as 
not to injure them. 

Elisa now instructed Piloto Jose ]Maria Narvaez to 
take the schooner and launch, with thirty sailors and 
eight Catalonian volunteers, and make a four da^'s' 
minute examination of the Haro Strait. He set sail 
on June 14th, and entered tlie strait along the western 
shore, with the intention of afterward letting the ves- 
sels explore one of the sides each ; but on reaching a 
group of islands above the present Cordoba Bay, this 
idea was found impracticable. An anchorage was 
sought for the night close to the east shore of Van- 
couver Island, evidently near the present Coal Island; 
and the next morning Narvaez steered eastward, to- 
ward the large opening which had been noticed the 
day before. After passing several islands, he was 
obliged to enter for a few hours into the small harbor 
of San Antonio.-^ The same morning, he entered to 

"^ ' Reconocl un buen puerto aunque pequeiio pues lo mas largo de el tiene 
una y media millas, y lo mas ancho una, pero resguardada de todo viento. . .y 
se halla situado en lo mas sur de la isla de Sayas.' Elina/i Voyar/e, 1791, in 
Papers reln/.iiiij (o the TretUy of Washinytfin, v. 17u. This is clearly Bedwell 
Harbor on Puuder Island. 



14 SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

examine the present Plumper Sound, and then rounded 
East pomt on Saturna Island,'^^ to behold spreading out 
before him, as far as his eyes could see, a very wide canal. 
This being the most important discovery made so far, 
lie resolved to name it in honor of the patron saint of 
the expedition, El Gran Canal de N""" S'" del Rosario, 
la marinera. the Gulph of Georgia of Vancouver. "' 

Narvaez explored this canal very nearly to the 
mouth of Johnstone Strait, noting a number of 
places on his map, and among them the entrance to 
Nanaimo harbor, which he names Wenthuysen, Tejada 
Island, and the mouths of Eraser River. ^^ 

The exploration in Fuca Strait and adjoining waters 
terminated on August 7th, when Elisa withdrew to 
seek remedies for his scurvy-stricken crew and the 
failing larder. He himself had been confined by 
sickness during the greater part of the time."^ 

Galiano and Yaldes m the ships Sutil and 3Iexi- 
cana leave Mexico soon after to prosecute discoveries 
round Vancouver Island, which expedition we shall 
encounter later. 

By the terms of settlement which followed the dis- 
turbances at Nootka, Spain was to restore all property 
seized, and England was neither to navigate nor to fish 
within ten leagues of any spot occupied by Spaniards; 
elsewhere the navigation of the Northwest Coast 
should be free to both powers. And in the execu- 
tion of these terms, commissioners appointed on either 
side were to meet at Nootka for the settlement of 
British claim;^. 

Georofe Vancouver,^*^ beino- about to sail for the 

^"Marked as Pt" de Sta Saturnina on Elisa's map. 

■•*' ' En el medio de el se distinguia como a perder de vista un pequeno eerro, 
a moda de Pan de Azucar, siendo adverteacia que los estreinos d puntas de 
tierra qne f orman este canal es serrania muy elevada, cubierta de nieve. ' lb. 

'■"* These are marked as openings between some islands, but behind them, 
on the continent, is laid down a wider irJet, Boca de Florida Blauca, which 
the Spanish explorers of the follo^ving year identified with Burrard Inlet. 

2^ Stitil y Mexicana, Viage, 2. 

^^At this time lieutenant, afterward post-captain in the British navy. 
He had served as midshipman with Captain Cook during his second and third 



BODEGA Y CUADRA AND VANCOUVER. 15 

Pacific on an exploring tour, is connnissioncd to act 
for Enoland, and Don Juan Francisco de la Bodes^a 
y Cuadra, for Spain. Vancouver appears upon the 
coast, near Cape Mendocino, in the sloop of war Dis- 
covery, with the armed tender Chatham, Lieutenant 
Broughton, master, in April 1702, which was the 
month following the departure of Bodega y Cuadra 
from San Bias with the Santa Gertiiidis, Activa, and 
Princesa. Coasting northward, and scattering names 
freely on the way, Vancouver calls Trinidad Head 
Rocky Point; next, Point St George, "and the 
very dangerous cluster of rocks extending from 
thence, the Dragon Bocks," also St George Bay, fol- 
lowed by Cape Orford, in honor of his "much re- 
spected friend, the noble earl," and Point Grenville,^^ 
■'after the Bight Honorable Lord Grenville." The 
points Meares named he recognizes, and among tliem 
Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay, though 
like the others he passes unobserved the entrance to 
the Columbia Biver, which otherwise would certainly 
have had another name, and perhaps another liistory. 
As Vancouver nears Fuca Strait he meets the ship 
Columbia, Captain Gray, who is astonished at the 
stories told of him in England, that he " had made a 
very singular voyage behind Nootka," in the sloop 
Washington. True, he had seen Dixon entrance, and 
had passed into Fuca Strait some fifty miles, where 
he had been told by the natives of an extensive open- 
ing to the northward, but he had returned where he 
had entered. In latitude 46" 10', he had discovered 
the mouth of a river, "where the outlet or reflux was 
so strong as to prevent his entering it for nine days."^"^ 
He had passed the winter at Clayoquot Harbor, w' here 
he had erected a fortification, naming it Fort Defiance, 
and had built a vessel, calling it the Adventure, which 

voyages. After serving in the West Indies and elsewhere, he died in England 
in 1798, while the narrative of his voyages was passing through the prejs. 

•'^ Meares, Voi/., 169, gave the same name to a headland just above Cape 
Lookout. 

''-See Vancouccr's Voi/., i. 215. 



16 SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

he had sent to Queen Charlotte Islands. After which 
parley, each sails his way. 

Passing between Tatooch Island and a rock to 
which is given the name of Duncan, the Resolution 
and Discovery enter Fuca Strait, and on the 30th 
of April anchor near a "low sandy point of land, 
which from its great resemblance to Dungeness in 
the British Channel," Vancouver calls New Dunge- 
ness. The lofty mountain toward the north-east, "dis- 
covered in the afternoon by the third lieutenant," is 
in compliment to him called Mount Baker. Survey- 
ing thence in small boats. Protection Island, Port 
Discovery, into which the ships are moved, and Port 
Townsend are seen and named, the last "in honor 
of the noble marquis of that name." An inferior point 
receives the name of an inferior person, Hudson. 
Some difficulty is experienced in obtaining fresh 
water, but the country is pronounced charming, with 
every move new beauties appearing. The 7th of May, 
Vancouver embarks in the Discovery's yawl, with his 
launch and the Chatham's cutter, with a five days' 
supply of stores. Dining at Port Townsend, the cliif 
adjacent seemingly composed of indurated clay is called 
Marrowstone Point, wliile the round snowy peak that 
glistens in the south-west is called Mount Rainier 
"after my friend Bear- Admiral Bainier." Oak Cove 
and Hazel Point are so named on account of the trees 
there ; Foulweather Bluff, because the weather changes 
when passing it. Hood Canal is entered, and named 
"after the Bight Honorable Lord Hood;" upon the 
land and its people comments are passed, and the com- 
mander returns to the ships. 

Leaving now the Chatham with instructions to 
Broughton to make observations in that vicinity, and 
then to follow, on the 18th Vancouver enters with the 
Discovery the inlet he calls Admiralty, and the next 
day orders a party in the launch and cutter, under 
Peter Puget, lieutenant, and Joseph Whiclbey, master, 
to precede him, discover, and reoort, while with more 



GEORGE VANCOUVER. 






^ 






•TSeXlinolxam 

r^ Bay 




U^5?* 




VAN(i>rvKu's M.\i', Xo. 1. 
Hist. BniT. Col. 3 



IS SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

comfortable leisure he sounds the channel, makes 
short excursions, examines strange sights, and bathes 
in new beauties. While thus engaged, on the 23d 
Port Orchard is seen, and the next day named "after 
the gentleman who discovered it." 

Broughton now appears with the Cliatham and 
informs Vancouver that to the north of Port Dis- 
covery is an archipelago, beyond which is a large arm 
of the sea. Impatient of delay, on the 26th Van- 
couver sets out in the yawl, leaving orders with 
Broughton, should Puget and Whidbey return, 
to have the arm running easterly examined. The 
result is the discovery and naming of Vashon Island, 
"after my friend Captain Vashon of the navy," and 
"to commemorate Mr Puget's exertions," Puget 
Sound being applied only to the southern extremity 
of Admiralty Inlet. Next the explorers enter that 
arm of the inlet extending toward the north-east, 
and on the king's birthday, the 4th of June, take 
formal possession of the coast country, and so call the 
place Possession Sound. The open water beyond 
the islands is called the Gulf of Georgia, and the 
continent adjacent and extending southward to the 
forty-fifth parallel, New Georgia, "in honor of his 
present Majesty." The western arm of this branch 
of Admiralty Inlet is called Port Gardner, "after 
Vice-Admiral Sir Alan Gardner," the smaller eastern 
one. Port Susan.^^ Pcnn Cove is so named "in honor 
of a particular friend." 

Passing northward out of Admiralty Inlet, Point 
Partridge, directly opposite Penn Cove, and Point 
Wilson, "after my much esteemed friend Captain 
George Wilson of the navy," and Deception Passage 
are named. Sending frequent parties in boats and 
on shore in various directions, the expedition continues 
through Posario Strait, which, however, is not here 

^^Vancouver's conception of the character and extent of these sheets of water 
was quite erroneous, and modern maps almost exchange their relative names 
and ]jositions. In proof of vthich we have later in this narrative, Deception 
passage leading into Port Gardner. 




Vancouver's Map, No. 2. 



20 SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

SO named, touching en route at a bay which they call 
Strawberry Ba}^, on the shore of an island which, 
"producing an abundance of upright cypress," they 
name Cypress Island, and passes on by Bellingham 
and Birch bays, and points William, Francis, Boi)erts, 
Grey, Atkinson, Gower, Upwood, and Scotch Fir to 
Burrard and Jervis canals and Howe Sound, where 
are Passage and Anvil islands. The usual sound 
reasons are generally given in the naming, such as 
"in compliment to my friend Captain George Grey 
of the navy;" Roberts "after my esteemed friend 
and predecessor in the Discovery;' "after Sir Harry 
Burrard of the navy;" "in honor of Admiral Earl 
Howe;" "in honor of Admiral Sir John Jervis;" 
and so on. Indeed, it were well for one coveting easy 
immortality to be a friend of Captain Vancouver's 
about this time, the aboriginal owners and occupants 
being, like earlier Spanish navigators, wholly ignored 
in this naming.^* 

At anchor, near Point Grey, on the 2 2d of June, 
Vancouver being then out on a boat excursion discov- 
ers two Spanish vessels of war, the brig Sutil, and 
the schooner Mexicana, Galiano commanding the for- 
mer and Valdes the latter, both captains in the Span- 
ish navy, sent by the viceroy of Mexico to continue 
Spanish discovery through Fuca Strait. They had 
sailed from Acapulco in March, and from Nootka 
early in June, had entered Fuca Strait and anchored 
in the Puerto de Nunez Gaona, now Neah Bay. 
There they found the Princesa, under Salvador Fi- 
dalgo, who had orders to plant in that vicinity a Span- 
ish establishment similar to that at Nootka. Thence 
they crossed to Cordoba,"^ or Victoria, which they pro- 

3* Sarah, Mary, and Susan must have been early inamoratas, or else rela- 
tives of the commander and his friends. 

''^It being not absolutely certain that this port is Victoria, the Cordoba 
of Quimper, I will give the author's own description of the place 'El Puerto 
de Cordoba es hermoso y proporciona buen abrigo d los navegautes; pero en 
61 escasea el agua, segun vimos, y nos informii Tetacus; el teri-eno es may de- 
^igual, de poca altura, y como manilicstan las cercanias de poco espesor la 



SUTIL Y MEXICANA. 21 

noimced a beautiful liarbor, but lacking water. From 
Nunez (xaona the}' had brought, to Cordoba, Tetacus, 
a chief of that country, whose village they visited; 
but the natives were suspicious owing to the cannon- 
ading inflicted during the previous year by the schooner 
Saturnina in defence of the launch of the San Carlos, 
which had accompanied her. 

On the 10th of June, they left Cordoba, crossed the 
channel, and anchored on the east side of San Juan 
Island, ^^ such being the name it bears on their map. 
Thence passing through the strait south of what they 
called Guemes Island, now Lawrence Island, to the 
mainland, they proceeded northward to Point William, 
which they called Point Solano, and anchored in the 
northern part of Bellingham Bay, which they named 
Seno de Gaston. ^^ There they grounded, and so re- 
mained a few hours, when continuing their course 
through Canal Pacheco, east of Pacheco Island, now 
called McLoughlin Island, they hugged the shore of 
the mainland past Birch Ba}", which they called En- 
senada del Garzon, and entered Boundary Bay, naming 
Peninsula de Cepeda and Punta de San Rafael.^^ 

While seeking to pass Point Roberts, not having 
yet met Vancouver, they encountered Broughton in 
the Chatham, and after exchanging courtesies, Galiano 
and Valdes continued close to the shore, until, as they 
approached the mouth of Fraser River, they noticed 
the water assume a different color, but before they 
could discover the river, they were carried by the 
current out into the strait, and were forced to seek 
anchorage for the night on the other side, which they 
found at a place called by them Anclage, on Galiano 

capa de tierra que hay sobre la piedra. Sin embargo es fertil, esta cubierta 
(.le arboles y plantas, y estas produccioues son quasi las mismas que las de 
Nutka, abuudaudo mas los resales silvestres.' StUil y Mexicaiia, Vkuje, 42-3. 

^" Their narrative says Sau Juau Island, but it was probably Lopez Island 
where they eanie to anchor, as in their map the two islands are joined. 

'■^'' All this, of course, was before Vancouver had been there. 

^^ The former applied to Point Roljerts, and the latter to the northern point 
of Drayton Harbor. Tlie present Boundary Bay is laid down on their map as 
Ensenada del Engaflo, so called on account of their failure to find there a pas- 
sage into the gulf of Georgia, marked on their map as Canal del Rosario. 



22 SUMMARY OF EAELIEST VOYAGES. 

Island. Continuing, on the 1 5th they entered what they 
called Portier Inlet, discovered the islands adjacent, 
and, returning the same way, coasted the eastern side 
of Valdes Island/'' seeking Point Gaviola, failing to 
find which they rounded Gabriola Island, and entered 
through Wenthuysen Channel a port called Cala del 
Descanso, now Nanaimo. Landing, they obtained 
water and provisions from the natives, after which, 
on the 1 9th they embarked for the opposite side of the 
strait, which they reached the following day, anchoring 
off Point Grey, v/hicli they call Punta de Langara. 

Very affable and polite are these strangers thus 
meetinor in the strano^e waters behind Nootka, who 
are so ready on occasion to cut each other's throats. 
The English invite the Spaniards to join expeditions. 
Each with liberal courtesy shows the other what he 
has found. Galiano is surprised that Vancouver did 
not discover Eraser Piver; for the Spanish explorers 
who had the previous year passed along this coast, 
had observed between points Roberts and Grey an 
opening which was either an inlet or a river, and 
which they located on their map, calling it Canal de 
Eloridablanca,^'' and the present Spanish captains as 
they but now approached their present anchorage had 
noticed that the water thereabout was almost fresh, 
and that in it were logs and debris floating, sure evi- 
dence of a stream near by. Vancouver, in common 
with other explorers, had passed the Columbia with- 
out observing it, under circumstances reflecting no 
great credit upon his expedition, and now he is greatly 
chagrined no less in being unable to discover large 
rivers, after their existence has been told him, than 
that the Spaniards should have been before him at 
all in these parts." He w^onders how the}'^ can go 

^^ Some modern maps give two islands the name Vald6s, this being the 
more southern. 

*" ' Named by one of their officers Rio Blanche, in compliment to the then 
prune-minister of Spain.' Vancouver's Voy., i. .314. 

*' ' I cannot avoid acknowledging,' he Vv'rites, Voy., i. 312, 'that on this 
occasion I experienced no small degree of mortification. ' ' En el ailo anterior 



MOVEilENTS OF THE SPANIARDS. 



23 




Gallvno's Map. 



24 SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

SO far and accomplish so much m a craft so ill suited 
to voyages of discovery/^ 

As regards the discoveries of the Spaniards before 
him in these parts, Galiano shows him a map on which 
is laid down, besides much other new information, 
Tejada Island and Rosario Strait/^ Vancouver is 
also informed that Cuadra awaits him at Nootka. 
Then the Spaniards dine the English, and the English 
dine the Spaniards, amidst profound punctilios; after 
which they continue their explorations for a time 
together, the Spaniards making now and then an ex- 
cursion in one direction and the English in another. 

On the 23d of June, entering Burrard Inlet, called 
by them, on their map. Canal de Sasamat, the Indian 
name of the place, and in their text, Floridablanca, 
indicative of the supposition that the stream they 
found flowing into it was the true canal or river of 
their predecessors, mistermed Blanche by Vancouver, 
and later Eraser Biver, the Spaniards pass by Howe 
and Jervis inlets, alread}^ examined by the English, 
and the combined fleet sails on through Malaspina 

habian visto nuestros ofnciales del departamento de San Bias a alguna dis- 
tancia esta parte de costa, y no devisando lo mas baxo de ella liabian creido 
que las tierras inmediatas a Punta de Langara y la Peninsula de Cepeda fuesen 
dos islas situadas en la boca del Canal de Floridablanca; asi las colocaron en 
su carta. ' Sut'd y Mexicana, Viage, 64. 

*'■* ' They were each about 45 tons burden, mounted two brass guns, and 
were navigated by 24 men, bearing one lieutenant, without a single inferior 
officer. Their apartments just allowed room for sleeping-places on each side, 
with a taljle in the intermediate space, at which four persons, with some diffi- 
culty, could sit, and were in all other respects the most ill-calculated and 
unfit vessels that could possibly be imagined for such an expedition.' Van- 
couver's Voy., i. 313. 

** Vancouver evidently misread this chart, as he call3 the island Favida, 
and places on his own map the 'Canal de Neiestra Senora del Rosario,' or 
if we would choose between the bad Spanish of the map and that of the text, 
the 'Canal del Neustra Signora del Rosario,' between Tejada Island and the 
mainland. Now it ■svas the Gulf of Georgia itself to Mdiich the Spaniards gave 
the name Canal del Rosario, and not to the narrow passage between Tejada 
loland and the mainland, which latter they called Malaspina Strait, the name 
it now bears. It were possible, as it is indeed the fact, that the Canal del 
Rosario of the Spaniards has been crowded down by the Gulf of Georgia of 
the English into the narrow channel at its southern end between the San 
Juan Islands a,nd the mainland; but we should hartlly expect to see our lady 
of Rosario making at one leap such distance as from Tejada to Fidalgo 
Islands. Compare Cartojrtrphy P. C, JMS., iii. 1C4. The present Rosario 
Strait is called on early Spanish maps Canal de Fidalgo. It v,^as in 1849 that 
the British admiralty made this change. 



JA^FKS JOHNSTONE. 25 

Strait, and anchors in tlic archii)clago at an island 
called by the Spaniards Quenia/'* the English naming- 
Point jVIarsliall and Savary Island on their way. 

It is here agreed by the combined fleet to send out 
three boat expeditions, the Spanish under Valdcs 
to proceed nt)rthward into the opening called by him 
Canal de la Tabla,^^ misnamed by modern map-makers 
Toba, the English under James Johnstone, an officer 
on board the Chatham, to enter the long narrow 
passage to which was subsequently given his name, 
while Puget was to survey what, by reason of the 
bleak earth and lowering opaque sky, Vancouver Avas 
constrained to call Desolation Sound. Galiano also 
goes out, and finds what he calls Canal del Arco, now 
Homfray Channel, which extends from Punta Sarmi- 
ento^*^ to Canal de la Tabla. East of Punta Sarmi- 
ento Galiano finds an inlet ending in two branches, 
to which he gives names, to the southern Malaspina, 
and to the eastern Bustamante. Many of the inlets 
hereabout are entered and named by both the Spanish 
and English ; thus the Punta de Magallanes of Ga- 
liano is the Point Mudge of Vancouver, the Brazo 
de Quintano of Galiano is the Bute Inlet of Van- 
couver, the Brazo de Salamanca of Galiano is the 
Loughborough Canal of Vancouver, and so on. The 
world has indeed progressed when we behold in this 
far-away wilderness the representatives of two great 
European powers laboring side by side for the exten- 
sion of knowledge, vying with one another in their 
noble efforts of discovery. Such a sight had never 
before been seen in these parts. 

The 3d of July, Johnstone is sent a second time into 
tlie narrow passage which he had found, and in com- 
pany with Swaine passes through it to vrithin full 
view of the ocean. ^" 

** Probalily Cortes Island. 

*•' On account of a wooden table carved in aboriginal hieroglyphics found 
there. 

** Called by Vancouver Point Sarah. 

*'' 'I-i t!ie atlas of La Perouue, 178G, No. 29, Scott Islands, at the northern 
end of Vancouver Island, are called lies de Sartine; Dixon calls them Bcres- 



HQ sum:.iary of earliest voyages. 

The Spaniards in their crazy craft being unable to 
keep place with the finer vessels of the English, Gali- 
ano politely requests Vancouver to proceed and leave 
him behind, which he does. Vancouver then follows 
Johnstone's track to the ocean, naming Point Chatham, 
Port Neville, Call and Knight canals, Broughton 
ArchijDclago, Deep Sea Bluff, Fife Passage, points 
Duff and Gordon, Mount Stephens, Wells Passage, 
Bo3des, and other points. In Queen Charlotte Sound, 
so named by Wedgborough, captain of the Experiment, 
in 178G, the Discovery runs on a rock, but finally es- 
capes without damage. The names Smith Inlet and 
Fitzhugh Sound, given by James Hanna in 1786, 
and Calvert Islands, by Duncan, are recognized and 
adopted by Vancouver. After entering Fitzhugh 
Sound, where the vessels get aground, the expedition 
proceeds to Nootka, where it arrives the 28th of Au- 
gust, being waited upon by a Spanish officer with a 
pilot, who conducts it into Friendly Cove. 

After parting from Vancouver at Valdes Island, 
Galiano and Valdes passed northward into Johnstone 
Strait, through Canal de Cordero, naming the Ensen- 
ada de Ali-Ponzoni, the present Frederick Arm ; 
Canal de Olavide, the channel running between 
Valdes and Thurlow Island ; the Bahias del Canonigo 
y de Flores; Canal de Retamal, the Call Canal of 
Vancouver; Brazo de Vernaci, the Knight Inlet 
of Vancouver ; Canal de Balda, at present Thompson 
Sound; Brazo de Baldinat, corresponding to Bond 
Sound. Westward from the last-named place is Canal 
de Pinedo, now Tribune Creek. The Johnstone 
Strait of Vancouver, Galiano and Valdes call Canal 
de Descubierta. The present Broughton Straits is 
named by them Canal de Atrevida. Beaching . the 

ford Isles; Map, Sutil y M&cicana, Viage, Isles de Lanz. Cartography P. C, 
MS., iii. 230. i.his was certainly among the first points seen in this vicinity; 
so that Johnstone there found himself near what was now one of the world's 
higliways. Ihe islands on the eastern side of the norlihern end of Vancouver 
Island are on the atlases of both Vancouver and the i^iitil y Ilexicaua, as 
the islands of Galiano and Valdes. ' 



GALIANO AND VALDES. 



27 





.? KINO-S , - 




jPt.Edrnund 
3 




2-pe Cautioa 

s 



ISJOF 







Vancouver's Map, No. 3, 



28 SUM^klARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

liarlDor where Fort Rupert stood later, they call the 
place Puerto de Guemes. Then rounding the north- 
ern end of Vancouver Island they sail for Nootka. 

Grace, mercy, and peace continue the order of the 
day. Vancouver offers to salute the Spanish flag if 
Bodega y Cuadra will return the compliment with an 
equal number of guns, which offer is gracefully ac- 
cepted, and so from either side thirteen guns bellow 
forth honors. At anchor here beside the Spanish 
brig Activa are Vancouver's store-ship Dwdcdus, and 
the Three Brothers, a small merchant brig from Lon- 
don, commanded by Lieutenant Alder of the navy. 
Beside the chiefs of Spain and England his aboriginal 
majesty Maquinna is conspicuous; but when, arrayed 
in robes of Adamic simplicity, he attempts to board 
Vancouver's vessel and is repulsed, the quality of his 
savagism being unknown, he is very angry at the 
English, but is mollified and made gracious by the Span- 
ish commandant. The representatives of the august 
rival powers now eat much together, and talk in genu- 
flections. The Chatham is hauled on shore and re- 
paired. Galiano and Valdes enter the port the 1st of 
September. Letters pass, and deep diplomatism is in 
order. To whom shall belong the several shanties on 
this barbarous coast is of primary importance to civ- 
ilization. It is unnecessary to follow here the sub- 
tile logic of these ship-captains; the subject is ex- 
hausted in another place. Suffice it to say, in aught 
save urbanity and obeisance they cannot agree. Bo- 
dega y Cuadra is ready to draw the line on this shore 
between Spain and England; Vancouver's orders ex- 
tend only to taking possession of his Majesty's huts. 
Jointly to glorify themselves, and likewise to make 
immortal the brotherly love which swells the breast 
of both commandants in their distinguished disagree- 
ments, Vancouver proposes,, and Bodega y Cuadra 
serenely smiles acquiescence, that the great island 
whereon they now sit shall forever be known as 



CUADRO AND VANX'OUVER. 29 

Cuaclra and Vancouver Island.^ The Spanish armed 
ship Aranzazu, Caamano, commander, enters the port 
the 8th of September. Other vessels here and else- 
where on the coast come and go, some trading, some 
waiting on the incipient settlements at Xootka and 
Neah Bay, all jealously watching each other — an 
English and an American shallop are on the stocks at 
Nootka; a French trader is on the coast; besides the 
Spanish vessels named are the Gertrudis, ConcejKion, 
Princesa, and the San Carlos; further, the Fenis and 
St Joseph and the brig Hoj^e are mentioned. 

And now at Nootka, Bodega y Cuadra solemnly 
possesses the Spanish huts, and Vancouver solemnly 
possesses the English huts; the questions involved are 
referred to home arbitrament ; then the several squad- 
rons sail each their way leaving the bland Maquinna, 
with bloody appetite new-whetted, as formerlv lord 
of all. 

On his way to San Francisco, Vancouver names 
Mount St Helens, "in honor of his Britannic ma- 
jesty's ambassadors at the court of Madrid," and sends 
Whidbey in the Dcidalns to survey Gray Harbor, 
and Broughton in the Chatham to examine the Colum- 
bia, liis attempt to enter the latter with the Discovery 
having failed. 

Yet twice again before returning to England, Van- 
couver appeared upon the Northwest Coast; once in 
April 1793, Broughton meanwhile sailing for home, 
and again in April 1794, after spending portions of 
both winters on the southern coast and at the Hawaiian 
Islands.^'' As hitherto, wherever he went he found 

*^ Both commanders were well aware that in thus giving so large a body of 
land their joint names, and so recording it in the text and on the maps of tlie 
expeditions of Vancouver and of Galiano and Valdes, one, and but one, would 
remain, and that would depend entirely as to which nation the territory fell. 

*'*In the expedition of 1793, Vancouver visited and named Cape Caution; 
Burke Canal, ' after the Riiiht Honorable Edmund;' Fisher Canal, * after a much 
respected friend;' points Walker, Eilmund, Edward, and Raplioc; Kiug Is- 
land, ' after the family of my late highly esteemed and much lamented friend. 
Captain James King of the navy; ' Port John, Dean, Cascade, and Muscle 
canals, and Restoration and Poison coves; then lie entered Milbank Sound, 
so named by Duncan, and gave the name of his third lieutenant to Cape Swaine, 



30 SUMMARY OF EARLIEST VOYAGES. 

in almost every instance that the Spaniards had been 
before him. 

From this time down to the final abandonment of 
this part of the coast by the Spaniards, and the plant- 
after which names were given to Gardner Canal, points Hopkins, Cumming, 
Hunt, and Pearce, Hawkesbury Island, Cape Ibbetson, I'itt Archipelago, ' after 
the Right Honorable William Pitt, ' Stephens Island, ' after Sir Philip Stephens 
of the admiralty, ' and Grenville Canal. Canal del Principe was navigated and 
named by Caamailo. Some of the other places seen and named by Vancouver 
in this voyage were Brown Passage, ' after the commander of the Buttcrwortli;' 
Dundas Island, ' after the Right Honorable Henry Dundas; ' Point Maskelyne, 
* after the astronomer royal; ' Point Ramsden, ' after Mr Ramsden, the opti- 
cian; ' Cape Fox, ' after the Right Honorable Charles James Fox; ' Point Alava, 
' in compliment to the Spanish governor at Nootka; ' Slate Islet; Point Nelson, 
' after Captain Nelson of the navy; ' Point Sykes, 'after one of the gentlemen 
of the Discovert/; ' points Trollop, Fitzgibbon, Lees, Whaley, Escape, Higgins, 
t)avidson, Percy, and Wales, the last named in honor of his schoolmaster; 
Burrough Bay; Traitor's Cove; Revilla Gigedo Island; Behm Canal; Cape 
Northumberland; Portland Canal; Moira Sound; Wedge Island, ' after the sur- 
geon of the Chatham;' Walker Cove, 'after a gentleman of the Chatham;^ Bull 
Island; 'after Mr John Stewart, one of the mates,' Port Stewart; points La 
Mesurier, Grindall, Rothsay, Highfield, Madan, Warde, Onslow, Blaquiere, 
Howe, Craig, Hood, Alexander, Mitchell, Macnamara, Nesbitt, Harrington, 
and Stanhope; Bradfield Canal; Prince Ernest Sound; Duncan Canal; Bushy 
Island; Duke of York Islands; points Baker, Protection, Barrie, Beauclerc, 
Amelius, St Alban, Hunter, North, Frederick, Buck, and Borlase; Conclusion, 
Coronation, and Warren Islands; Cape Pole; Cape Henry; Affleck Canal; Duke 
of Clarence Strait; Englefield Bay; Prince of \A'ales Archipelago; Cartwright 
Sound; and Cape Decision, the last having been given on making up his mind 
that the earlist reputed discoveries of the Spaniards were fabulous. The con- 
tinent between Desolation Sound and Gardner Canal he named New Hanover, 
to the northward of Gardner Canal as far as Point Rothsay, New Cornwall, 
and to the northward of New Cornwall as far as Cross Sound, New Norfolk. 
These wath New Georgia and New All)ion completed a very pretty stretch of 
new dedicated continent, extending from LoAver California to Alaska. To tliis 
illustrious navigator be the further honor of inflicting from his endless vocab- 
ulary the nameless names of personal friendships upon the places visited by 
him in his voyage of 1794 as follows: Point Macartney, Sullivan, Ellis, Harris, 
Cornwallis, Kingsmill, Hobart,Vandeput,Walpole, Astley, Windham, Anmer, 
Coke, Styleman, Salisbury, Arden, Hugh, Gamljier, Pybus, Napean, Wood- 
house, Bingham, Sophia, Frederick, Augusta, Townshend, Gardner, Samuel, 
Parker, Marsden, Retreat, Bridget, St Mary, Seduction, and ' after the seat 
of my ancestors, Couverden; ' Chatham Strait, 'after Lord Chatham;' Cape 
Addington, 'after the Speaker of the House of Commons;' ports Camden, 
Malmesbury, Houghton, Snettesham, Mary, Conclusion, Althrop, and Fi- 
dalgo; Prince Frederick Sound; Cape Fanshaw; Holkham Bay; Douglas 
Island, Stephens Passage, Barlow Cove, Seymour Canal; Cape Edward; King 
George the Third Archipelago; Berners Bay; Lynn Canal; points Dundas, 
Wimbledon, Lavinia, Latouche, Manby, Fremantle, Pellew, Pakenham, 
Pigot, Nowell, Culross, Coimtess, Waters, and Pyku; Knight Islands; Digges 
Sound; Wingham Island; Cape Spencer; Passage Canal; Cape Puget; Haw- 
kins Island; Bligh Island; and points Elrington, Bainbridge, Bentinck, Wit- 
shed, Campbell, Mackenzie, and Woronzow. I think we may safely say that 
no one man ever gave so many geographical names, which remained perma- 
nently placed as Vancouver; I wish I might truthfully add that no one ever 
exercised better taste in the execution of such a task. Among the names 
given by the Spaniards in this region, and for the most part respected by Van- 



GENERAL TRAFFIC. 31 

iiig of the post of Astoria at the mouth of the Colum- 
bia River, by the Americans, in 1811, many ships of 
various nations coasted Vancouver and Queen Char- 
lotte Islands and the adjacent mainland, chiefly for 
purposes of traffic with the natives, and after and along 
with them the adventurers of England trading into 
Hudson's Bay, first in vessels only, and then with all 
the paraphernaha for permanent establishments, further 
allusion to which is not necessary in this connection. 

coiiver, were the Canal de Revilla Gigedo, as represented on the chart of 
Caaniano Estrecho de Fuentes, Puerto del Canaveral, Entrada del Carmen, 
Cape de Chacon, Isla de Zayas, Cabo Caamauo, Puerto del Baylio Bucareli, 
discovered by Bodega y Cuadra in 1775, Cabo de San Bartolonie, Puerto do 
Valdes, the Puerto Gravina Fidalgo; but, as a rule, the names given by Rus- 
sian and Spanish explorers who had preceded Vancouver in these parts were 
in his re-naming ignored. 



CHAPTER II. 

GENERAL VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

Eastern Parallels — Configuration of North-western America — Brit- 
Lsn Colombia Coast — Puget Sound — Vancouver Island — Queen 
Charlotte Islands — Climatic Secticns of the Mainland — New 
Caledonia — Heights of Land — The Columbia and Eraser Plateau 
Basin — Skeena and Stikeen — Oregon, Washington, and Idaho — ■ 
Northwest Coast Climates — The Temperature of Various Local- 
ities—Fauna AND Flora — The Aborigines — Attitudes of the Fub- 
traders and Settlers toward the Natives — Peaceful Regime under 
THE Great Monopoly — The Chinook Jargon. 

Having thus sufficiently refreshed our memory as to 
the earhest appearance of Europeans in these parts, 
before proceeding in chronological order with the 
affairs of British Columbia, I do not regard it time 
lost to take a general survey of the condition of things 
at this juncture throughout the north Pacific slope; 
for although the careful reader of that part of this 
history entitled the Northivest Coast must have some 
knowledge of the present state of affairs, another 
glance, as at a picture of the whole, cannot fail to 
give a clearer and more lasting idea of the country at 
the beginning of what may be termed British Colum- 
bia history proper. 

California is opposite Spain; Oregon and Washing- 
ton are on the parallels of France; British Columbia 
is in the latitude of Great Britain; as the world is 
round and revolving, there is no reason why one side 
of it should be better than another. Nor is it. Civ- 
ilization is harder upon soils than savagism; and the 
steppes of Russia and Siberia, though perhaps some- 



I 



PROMINENT FEATURES. ns 

what more densely occupied, and with somewhat more 
advanced indigenous populations, are neither so at- 
tractive nor so virgin as the prairies, lake lands, and 
river and mountain districts of northernmost America. 
Each hemisphere has its freezing eastern side, and its 
warmer western side, thanks to the modifying ocean 
streams which come sun-beaten from the tropics; and 
for the rest, there is little to choose; that little, how- 
ever, ahvays being in favor of what each of us may 
call our own country. 

The Northwest Coast, if we comprise within the 
limits of that term the territory from California to 
Alaska, and between the Rocky Mountains and the 
ocean, is more varied in its configuration, some would 
say more grandly beautiful, than the opposite eastern 
plains. The rock formations of the former are more 
disturbed; the region is mountainous, with a high 
irregular plateau between two principal ranges, subor- 
dinate plateaus intervening in places between subor- 
dinate ranges, and all having in the main the general 
trend of the coast. Thus dropping the appellation of 
the great continental chain which binds the two 
Americas from Alaska to Patagonia, and adopting 
local nomenclature, we have for the representatives of 
the Bitter Root Mountains of Idaho, taken collec- 
tively, the Purcell, Selkirk, Columbia, Cariboo, and 
Omineca mountains of British Columbia; the Cas- 
cade Range is a continuation of the Sierra Nevada; 
Vancouver and Queen Charlotte islands are a contin- 
uation of the Coast Range; the great plateau region 
of the Columbia, the Fraser, and the Skeena rivers is 
a continuation of the Utah and Nevada basin. 

Western British Columbia is essentially moun- 
tainous, breaking on the border into innumerable 
islands and ocean inlets, presenting a bold rocky front, 
heavily timbered to the water's edge. 

Exceedingly beautiful and very grand is the water 
system of Pugct Sound, and the labyrinth of straits, 
inlets, ba3^s, and islands all along the coast of British 

nisr. Bbit. Col. 3 



34 GENERAL VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

Columbia. And while St Lawrence Gulf and Lake 
Superior are wrapped in biting cold, roses sometimes 
dare to bloom here, and green pease and strawberries 
to prepare for their early gathering. 

The island of Vancouver presents a mountainous 
interior, subsiding at either end, and at places along 
its eastern side. The shores are exceedingly pictur- 
esque, bold, rocky, and rugged, broken on the western 
side into numerous bays and inlets like those of the 
mainland, with intervening cliffs, promontories, and 
beaches, while on the northern and eastern sides the 
absence of ocean indentations is remarkable. The 
island is generally wooded, the borders with fir, back 
of which are hemlock, and the mountains with cedar. 
Between the ridges which cross and interlace are 
small valleys affording but moderate agricultural 
facilities; but on the southern and eastern border 
there are extremely fertile tracts susceptible of easy 
cultivation, the open spots offering the first attraction 
to settlers. Lakes, streams, and water-falls every- 
where abound, though the rivers are none of them 
large 

The Queen Charlotte Islands are mountainous, 
like all adjacent lands; and while there are tracts, par- 
ticularly around the border, which might be success- 
fully cultivated^ it is more to the mmeral resources 
here embedded that we must look for profitable re- 
turns. East of the high interior of Moresby Island is 
a flat belt growing alders. All these islands are 
densely wooded, cypress and spruce being prominent, 
with redundant undergrowth. The climate is mild 
and moist; the natives are light-complexioned, intel- 
ligent, courageous, and cruel. 

Stili following the all-compelling mountains, the 
mainland of -British Columbia may be divided into 
three sections, the first comprising the coastwise 
strip between the ocean and the eastern slope of the 
Cascade Bange, extending back, for instance, on the 
Frascr as far as Yale; the second, a parallel strip 



RANGES AND PASSES. 35 

whose eastern boundary line would be upon the west- 
ern side of the Cariboo Mountains, and cross tlie 
Eraser, say at Alexandria; the third extending thence 
to the Rocky Mountains. 

Dense woods containing trees of gigantic growth, 
pine, fir, and red-cedar, characterize the first section, 
the low alluvial deposits about the rivers and inlets 
being covered by jungle, with here and there poplars, 
alders, balsam, and aspen, and sometimes meadows of 
coarse nutritious grass, all the products of rich soils 
and copious rains. Upon the drier surface of the 
second section a different vegetation appears. Indeed, 
the presence of cacti, artemisia, and kindred shrubs be- 
yond Lytton are significant of a hot as well as a dry 
climate. In place of the massive forests and redundant 
flora of the seaboard, we find an open countr}^, hills, 
pastures, and grassy vales, with intervening forest belts. 
Less suited to agriculture, except in the more favored 
spots, more wooded, j^et still with vast luxuriant pas- 
tures, is the third section. On the great plateau stretch- 
ing far to the north from the branch bends of the Fraser, 
the climate is much more severe than between Cariboo 
and Kamloop. On the other side, tov/ard the south 
and east, the temperature is much milder, particularly 
between Colville and the Dalles, where lies the great 
Columbia cactus-bearing desert with occasional bunch- 
grass oases. 

The mountain passes are usually blockaded in 
winter ; yet in June, where lately rested ten or twenty 
feet of snow the ground is flower-spangled, and the 
forests flush with the bursting green of the sweet early 
foliage. Crossing the grim Stony range from the 
east at Peace River, which stretches its branches far 
and wide within the summit line of the continental 
ridge, and steals for the eastern slope the waters of 
the western, the first Scotch explorers found them- 
selves in a labyrinth of minor ridges whose blue lakes, 
among the pine-clad steeps, brought to mind the lochs 
and bens of their old highland homes; so they called 



36 GENERAL VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

the place New Caledonia as elsewhere I have men- 
tioned. Approaching McLeod Lake the mountains 
put on a more stupendous aspect. Mackenzie found 
the temperature there from 30° above to 16° below 
zero; and though the ground was covered with snow, 
the gray wren and mountain robin, the latter arrayed 
in delicate fawn with scarlet belly, breast, and neck, 
black wings edged with fawn, variegated tail, and 
tuft-crowned head, came out hopping, and singing, 
and eating, as though the dreary prospect only stirred 
in them a higher happiness, just as adversity some- 
times brings sweet music from otherwise dumb hu- 
manit}^ 

In this boldly swelling country of New Caledonia 
the scenery is varied. In the forests the cedar, fir, 
and hemlock assume magnificent proportions, while 
the copses, separating plains and open undulations, 
give pleasing variety to the eye. It is singularly and 
beautifully watered. Rivers mark out the region in 
natural districts often silver- edged with long narrow 
lakes, which glisten in the sunshine like the waters 
of paradise. 

There are many heights of land round which clus- 
ter snow-clad peaks, parting the flow of waters, parting 
twin drops, sending one to the Pacific and its brother 
to the Atlantic; sendinsr one to mino^le with the brine 
of the Mexican Gulf beneath the vapor-beating sun, 
and another to be locked throuo;hout the ao^es in the 
icy embrace of the Arctic Sea. All along the conti- 
nental range are such heights of land, and at many 
points along the north-western table-land. Between 
the tributaries of the Saskatchewan and those of the 
Columbia; between the tributaries of Peace Piver 
and those of Fraser and Skeena rivers; betvv^een the 
streams flowino- into the Fraser all alonof its course 
and those which feed the Columbia on the one 
side and the Bellacoola and Skeena on the other, 
there are multitudes of these heights of land, not to 
mention the ridges dominating the rivulets running 



OKAXAGAN AND KOOTENAI. 37 

to the Stikeen and Yukon, or to the Mackenzie. 
He who camps upon the narrow isthmus joining the 
lofty continental mountains and dividing the high 
rolhng seas of hill and plain on either side, may hll 
his kettle from the limpid source either of the Sas- 
katchewan or the Columbia. But more than this, 
and most remarkable of anything of the kind on the 
planet, at that grandest of Rocky IMountain passes, 
the Athabasca, is a little lake called the Committee's 
Punch Bowl, one end of which pays tribute to the 
Mackenzie and the other to the Columbia. 

The plateau basin of the Columbia and Fraser 
rivers comprises thickly timbered uplands interspersed 
with woodland and grassy valleys bordered by pine- 
dotted hills rolling gently upward from limpid lakes 
and boisterous streams. There are few deserts or 
worthless tracts, and in the forests but little under- 
brush ; the country is one vast pasture ; prairie and 
forest, valley and hill being covered with nutritious 
grass. In the Okanagan Biver district we find in- 
dications of that sandy waste which hence extends 
southward as the great American desert to Mexico. 
The lake country from Chilcotin to Fort Fraser and 
beyond is generally open; the river region to the north 
and east of the Cariboo Mountains between Fort 
George and Yellowhead Pass is thickly wooded, with 
few if any open spaces. Northward only the hardier 
vegetation is able to endure the summer night frosts. 
Between forts Kootenai and Colville, the trail winds 
along lakes and streams from whose borders rise moun- 
tains of black rock hidden beneath the dun pine 
foliage, which, mirrored in the transparent waters, 
turns them to lakes and rivers of dark and fathomless 
depths, while the setting sun tips with gold the sum- 
mits of these gloomy f.ierras. 

Tired travellers do not always take the most hope- 
ful view of the wilderness through which they toil. 
Thus Sir George Simpson finds the Kootenai country 
"rugged and boggy, with thick and tangled forests, 



3S GENERAL VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

craggy peaks, and dreary vales, liere and there hills 
of parched clay where every shrub and blade of grass 
was brown and sapless as if newly swept by the blast 
of a sirocco, with occasional prairies and open swards 
interspersed with gloomy woods or burning pine 
forests." Passing over the Eraser basin, Johnson ex- 
claims: "Of all the dismal and dreary-looking places 
in the world the valley of the Thompson River for 
some fifteen or twenty miles from its mouth would 
easily take the palm ! We have thought the canons 
of the Fraser rugged enough, but here was naught 
but rocks, whereon even the hardy fir refused to vege- 
tate." 

Their vocabulary is scarcely sufficient for the mighty 
fissure of the Fraser, whose waters gathered from 
scores of lakes and tributary streams dash through 
gorges and between high perpendicular rocks in suc- 
cessive cascades and rapids, with here and there brief 
breathing-places. "'The Fraser Kiver Yalley," writes 
an observer, "is one so smgularly formed, that it would 
seem that some superhuman sword had at a single 
stroke cut through a labyrinth of mountains for three 
Iiundred miles, down deep into the bowels of the 
land." Again : "At no point of its course from Ques- 
nelle to Lytton is the Fraser River less than twelve 
hundred feet below the level of the land lying at 
either side of it ; and from one steep scarped bank to 
the other is a distance of a mile." Another standing 
at Lytton says: "Here, along the Fraser, the Cascade 
Mountains lift their rugged heads and the river flows 
at the bottom of a vast tangle cut by nature through 
the heart of the mountains." Yet "along the Nach- 
arcole River there will be found a country admirably 
suited to settlement, and possessing a prairie land of 
a kind nowhere else" found in British Columbia. 

In the Skeena and Stikeen countries, which give 
rise as well to the rivers of their respective names 
emptying into the Pacific, as to the waters which 
take their freezing flow round by the Macken- 



THE SPOKANE fOUXTRY. 39 

zie to the Arctic, the wildest and most romantic 
scenery is found. Momitains of stone and ice are 
there, and ghxciers equal to any of Switzerland — f^iant 
olaciers and infant glaciers, . Methusalehs and mud- 
born. Ascending from the sea, througli the pine- 
covered belt, through spruce, hendock, and balsam, 
willow, alder, and cottonwood, which at every step 
becomes more broken and the trees more scatterinp;, 
the traveller finally emerges into a fit home for piti- 
less fate, glittering, cold, inexorable bowlders, and snow 
succeeding snow, and bowlders in mountain melange, 
limitless variety in limitless unity, here and there cut 
into sections by ice-ploughed canons and chasms. 

That which was originally the bunch-grass country 
of eastern Washington is now famous for its. grain- 
growing properties; for though the atmosphere is dry, 
water lies near the surface. Tlie intersecting moun- 
tain ranges, and the deep-gorged water channels of 
eastern Oregon, are less favorable to agriculture than 
the rolling plains on the northern side of the Colum- 
bia. And along this belt far to the north, and high 
above the sea, the sheltered vallej's afibrd ample re 
turns to the husbandman. At Fort Alexandria, witli 
an altitude of fourteen hundred and fifty feet, and at 
other places a thousand feet higher, forty bushels of 
wheat to the acre are not uncommon, and other prod- 
ucts in proportion. 

The lower slopes of the snow-topped mountains of 
Idaho are furrowed with streams which clothe the 
foot-hills in sturdy forests and the high prairies in 
rich grasses. Nestling below the level of the plains 
are warm, quiet valleys, protected alike from the arid 
winds of summer and the cold blasts of winter; and 
on winter pastures the snow seldom remains long. 

Larch, cedar, fir, and pine thickly overspread the 
Bitter lioot :Mountains. The Walla AValla Valley, 
with its bright, winding streams, fringed with cotton- 
wood, presents a pleasing picture. 2^"orth of the Spo- 
kane the country is wooded, and much of the soil 



40 GENERAL VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

arable. The Flathead country is warm, with good 
arable land predominating. 

The well watered and alluvial Willamette Valley, 
being alike free from the periodical aridity of Cali- 
fornia, the desiccating winds of eastern Oregon, and 
the general gravelly character of Washington soils, is 
peculiarly adapted to crop-raising and fruit-growing. 
For many years the Yakima country, now known to 
be one of the most fertile wheat-fields in the world, 
was regarded as fit only for grazing. 

Thus the highest agricultural facilities of Oregon 
and Washington are reversed; those of the former 
lying west of the Cascade Mountains, and those of 
the latter on the eastern side of that range. Let 
each, therefore, be duly thankful. Not that western 
Washington need blusli for its resources, for although 
the surpassing fertility of the Willamette soils fails 
on crossing the Columbia and entering the more 
gravelly plains of the Cowlitz and the region round 
Puget Sound and Admiralty Inlet, yet when this 
old ocean-bed emerged from the waters with it came 
coal and iron, and in due time grand forests arose on 
the margin of beautiful waters, and crept up the 
Olympian heights to the line of summer snow. 

The climates of the Northwest Coast are many and 
variable, but all are healthful, and by far the greater 
part agreeable. Considering the surface covered, there 
is a remarkable absence of marshy plains, miasma, 
malaria, and consequent ague. Here, as elsewhere, 
elevated districts are cold, but not so cold as in many 
other places. A very severe winter in New Cale- 
donia, such as happens once in ten years, ma}^ be as 
severe as a very mild winter in Canada, but not more 
severe. 

The Cascade Range marks the two great climatic 
divisions, both the heat and the cold on the eastern 
side being greater than on the western. East of this 
range the climate is dry; on the western slope it is 



HEAT AND COLD. 41 

wet, the humidity increasing toward the north. Sum- 
mer is hot, and winter cold, on the eastern side; on 
the western, summer is lovely, some days warm and 
bright, some rainy, and winter never severely cold. 

Temperatures vary of course with latitude, altitude, 
and distance from the sea; but throughout the whole 
of this region there are comparatively small portions 
not habitable by man, while by flir the greater part is 
salubrious and delightful. The well protected valleys 
are seldom subject to extremes of weather, being free 
from strong winds and heavy falls of snow, and in the 
dry crystalhne air of the higher plains even a low fall 
of the thermometer is easily endured. The rivers of 
the east are often blocked b}^ thick ice almost down to 
their mouths, but navigation on the lower waters of the 
Northwest Coast is seldom impeded. The rivers of 
the upper interior freeze in winter, but on the elevated 
plains snow is seldom more than eighteen inches deep, 
and when the sun and spongy wind look in upon the 
valleys, frosty coverings vanish as if by magic. 

Heat and cold are both more endurable by man in 
a dry than in a wet atmosphere. Add to this the 
fact that the western sides of continents are warmer 
than the eastern by reason of the warm air and 
ocean-currents thrown upon them, and we may per- 
haps understand why the mean temperature at Fort 
Dunvegan, so called from the castle of the ]\IcLeods 
built among the cold bleak rocks of Skye one thousand 
feet above the sea, differs little from that of Quebec, 
whose altitude and latitude are much lower. And yet 
Dunvegan can scarcely be called west of the mountains. 

Though bordering upon the high latitudes, the cli- 
mate of British Columbia is more British than hyper- 
borean. The traveller in crossing the mountains from 
the east may find the same clouds arraying the one 
side in snow and ice, and dropping gentle rain upon 
the other. Indeed, along the border of the ocean as 
far as the Aleutian Archipelago nature is always in a 
melting mood. 



42 GEXERAL VIEW OF THE NORTH^VEST COAST. 

As far back as Idaho and Montana the modifying 
influences of the Japan currents are felt, spring, sum- 
mer, and autumn there being delightful, while winter 
is less severe than in Iowa, Wisconsin, or Minnesota. 
It is only on the higher elevations that the cold is 
extreme, or the snowfall heavy. Both the country 
and climates of Idaho and Montana are well adapted 
to wool-o-rowinof and horse and cattle raising:. The 
mean winter temperature at Virginia, Montana, is not 
far from twenty-five degrees above zero. 

Some parts of British Columbia are better for 
grazing purposes in winter than the elevated pastures 
of Idaho. Birds fly south when snow comes ; but we 
find the stock-raisers of Idaho driving their cattle for 
winter pasturage into British Columbia, the low snow- 
less valleys of Idaho being too small to accommodate 
them, while the Columbia basin above Colville is 
more hospitable than the winter-wrapped upper plains 
of Idaho. Sproat calls it the climate of England with- 
out the biting east wind. "■ There can be no doubt," 
says Pal^ner, of the royal engineers, " that in point of 
salubrity, the climate of British Columbia excels that 
of Great Britain, and indeed is one of the finest in 
the world.'* 

Winter on Vancouver Island is not severe, and 
summer is charming. Bain is plentiful, particularly 
during winter; snow seldom lies long on the lower 
levels. The climate here is similar to the mainland 
seaboard, with insular peculiarities. On the coast 
the temperature is seldom over 80° or under 20° 
Fahrenheit. 

The temperature at Stuart Lake is subject to 
sudden variations, though these are exceptional. Wild 
fruits flourish and ripen there, even the susceptible 
service-berry blossom being seldom blighted. The 
hollows thereabout are subject to occasional hoar 
frosts in summer, which do not appear on the sunny 
slopes. Here, as elsewhere in British Columbia, en- 
thusiasts point to the humming-bird as proof of a 



I 



GAME. 43 

o'cnlal climate ; yet I can hardly insist, as some of the 
old Hudson's Bay Company's servants would almost 
have me do, that the winter climate of New Caledonia 
is wholty free from inconvenient cold. On the upper 
Fraser winter is capricious, intense cold coming and 
going suddenly. Round the rugged Cariboo ]\Ioun- 
tains snow falls freely. Extremes are rare on the upper 
Columbia, snow seldom remaining' lonjx. The climate 
here is as delightful as the scenery is grand. 

Everywhere north of San Francisco Bay, and 
along the coast as far as the sixtieth parallel, were 
I'ound grizzly bears, the grassy flats at the moutli 
of rivers, and the rank vegetation on the banks of 
inlets, wdiere berries were abundant, being their fa- 
vorite haunts. For some reason they did not seem 
to fancy Vancouver Island as a dwelling-place, though 
their black brethren were there in superabundance, as 
well as on the mainland. 

Even more ferocious in this region than the grizzly 
was the brown bear, which seemed to prefer the in- 
terior to the coast. On the island and mainland were 
elk, black -tailed deer, and reindeer, the cariboo of 
the voj'ageurs in the northern mountains of New 
Caledonia. In the vicinity of the Bocky Mountains 
were mountain-sheep, moose-deer, and wood-buffalo. 
The fur-bearing beasts, whose skins constituted the 
chief branch of commerce on the Northwest Coast, 
were brown, black, and grizzly bear; beaver; badgers; 
silver, cross, and red foxes; fishers; martens; minks; 
the gray and spotted lynx; musquash; sea and land 
otters; panthers; raccoons; black, gray, and coyote 
wolves, and wolverines. 

The natives of Vancouver Island speared salmon, 
and caught herring, halibut, cod, sturgeon, and whales; 
they hunted the bear, wolf, panther, elk, deer, marten, 
mink, beaver, and raccoon. On all the large streams 
of the mainland, salmon were plentiful from early spring 
to late summer. They ascended the Fraser seven hun- 



44 GENERAL YIEW OF THE XORTIIWEST COAST. 

drcd miles. From staple food of the natives, salmon 
became at an early day with the Hudson's Bay Corn- 
pan}^ an article of commerce. Oysters and crabs were 
common on the sea-shore. The eulachon, or candle- 
fish, is famous in these parts; sardine, anchovy, had- 
dock, and dog-fish also may be mentioned. 

Birds of song are less conspicuous than birds of 
beautiful plumage. Grouse are common on island and 
mainland. Then there are quails, ptarmigan, pigeons, 
geese, ducks, and snipe. 

Thus we see in this northern west, save upon the 
briny border, a land of bright skies and buoyant airs ; 
of forested mountains and fertile plains; of placid 
bays, large rivers, silvery lakes, and prismatic water- 
falls; of coal, and iron, and gold, and other exhaust- 
less mineral wealth; of fisheries, and agricultural, 
commercial, and manufacturing facilities; with soils, 
climates, and scenery equal to any of Europe, equal 
to any on earth. What shall hinder empire, evolu- 
tion, and all that elevates and ennobles, aiding man 
here to assert his completest sovereignty? 

I can say but a word here regarding the aboriginal 
nations inhabiting these parts, but must refer the reader 
to the work set apart for that subject. The first vol- 
ume of the Native Races of the Pacific States contains 
descriptions of the several peoples as first seen by 
Europeans, and their manners and customs, and in 
the third volume will be found something of their 
mythologies and languages. 

Nor have I space to enter at length upon the atti- 
tude of the Hudson's Bay Company toward the na- 
tives, their treatment of, or policy concerning them. 
These matters will be found fully explained in the 
History of the Northwest Coast. 

This much I can say, however, by w^ay of remind- 
ing the reader of wdiat is therein stated. Probably 
savagism was never so deftly and delicately stripped 
of its belongings, and laid away to rot, as in British 



THE NATIVES. 45 

Columbia. Never from l)eginmng to end was there a 
single outbreak or massacre of any importance, save 
along the seaboard, and tliese were seldom directed 
against the resident fur-traders. Why was this, when 
the United States l;order was everywhere deluged in 
blood ? Surely these northern nations were naturally 
as fierce and vindictive as any south of them. The 
answer is — Business. The natives were needed for 
hunters. They had nothing of which the respectable 
European wished to rob them; so their possessions 
were left for a time unmolested. When the company 
wanted their land, as a matter of course they took it ; 
but at first they required only the skins of their wild 
beasts, and these the natives must secure and bring 
to them. 

The natives of the seaboard were regarded with 
fear by all sailors. As a rule, and especially to 
strangers, they were exceedingly dangerous, as their 
capture of the Boston, the Tonqidn, and other vessels 
abundantly proves. Often the traders fed them on fire- 
water, and in return the demonized savages caught 
and killed them whenever they felt able. In early 
times, rapine and murder along this coast was the 
normal condition of things. Against every attempt at 
settlement the natives fought desperately. 

And why should they not resist ? From time im- 
memorial their fathers had held the land ; and the sea 
was theirs, kindly yielding them food and clothing. 
They could not ask their gods for more, unless it 
should be to make them alwaj^s drunk. 

The officers and servants of the Hudson's Bay 
Company were as nmch gentlemen by instinct in their 
treatment of Indians as in their treatment of civil- 
ized men and women. Hence it was, when General 
Joe Lane, whilom governor of Oregon and United 
States senator, as he was once riding toward Nisqually, 
wa'< lieard to exclaim regarding the natives there- 
about, "Damn them! it would do my soul good to 
be after them ! " his hearers could not understand it. 



46 • GENERAL VIEAV OF T'AE NOKTRVVEST COAST. 

Such words could never liave fallen from the lips of 
a McLoughlin or a Douglas. It was a species of blood- 
thirsty brutality totally beyond the comprehension of 
men who had learned to look on these children of the 
forest as men of like creation and nature as them- 
selves. 

For the trial of the Indians hanged at Steilacoom for 
the killing of Wallace at the Nisqually post, jurymen 
were brought all the way from Oregon City. Well 
may we say that therein was much hollow form for a 
little show of justice, when we are told that three or 
four of these men, during their deliberations, rolled 
themselves in their blankets, and before composing 
themselves to sleep remarked, "Whenever you want 
an Indian hanged, awake us." But this was intelligent 
and humane conduct in comparison with much that 
occurred in the Anglo-American occupation of the 
western United States. I admit that neither what 
were called good men nor the government were 
wholly responsible for the wholesale butcheries of 
men, women, and children for crimes which they 
never committed; and yet, whenever I am obliged to 
allude to the subject, I can but notice this difference 
in the treatment of the Indians. 

The frequent hostility of the Indian does not origi- 
nate in savage malignity or natural blood-thirstiness, 
but in righteous retaliation for endless provocations. 
" Many a night," writes one by no means sentimental 
in such matters, "have I sat at the camp-fire and 
listened to the recital of bloody and ferocious scenes, 
in which the narrators were the actors and the poor 
Indians the victims; and I have felt my blood tingle 
with shame and boil with indignation to hear the dia- 
bolical acts applauded by those for whose amusement 
they were related." 

Unfortunately for the poor savage, in his divinely 
preordained extinction, it v/as ordered that he should 
be often brought into contact with those who sought 
to save his soul and those who destroved his bod v. 



RELIGION AND COMMERCE. ^ 47 

How much better for him would it have been if the 
missionaries had directed their efforts toward im- 
proving the hearts and morals of the desperate and 
brutal border men, the knaves and vagabonds who 
spent their lives in informing upon and insulting the 
natives, and on the first slight appearance of defence 
or retaliation on the part of the Indian, in slaughtering 
him. Better a thousand times had the missionaries 
spent their lives in converting these men, for they 
needed regeneration far more than did the savage. 

Wherever the officers and servants of the Hudson's 
Bay Company had the country entirely to themselves, 
til ere was little trouble with the natives. Their man- 
agement of them was perfect. They treated them, 
first of all, as human creatures, not as wild beasts. 
They were to them the children, not the enemy of 
civilization. In their intercourse they were humane, 
in their dealings, honest. Offences were followed by 
justice, not by revenge. No attempt was made to 
fasten upon them the religions or moralities of civiliza- 
tion; though gross cruelty and inhumanity among 
themselves were severely frowned upon, they were 
left to marry ad Uhituin or not to marry at all, and to 
worship the gods of their creation after their own 
fashion. 

But the moment competitive traders came in, all 
this happy state of things was changed. Fiery 
draughts of intoxication were placed to the lips of 
the savages, no less by the benevolent and dignified 
adventurers of England than by the heedless Yankee 
skipper and the border desperado. Commerce levels 
all moralities. Whenever even the most bitter rivalry 
was confined to large and responsible companies, the 
savage was not much the sufferer; indeed, his -im- 
portance was often thereby greatly magnified, and the 
artless aboriginal was by no means slow to make 
avail of this increased purchasing power of his pel- 
tries. But in sections where free trappers and irre- 
sponsible border men obtained permanent foothold, 



48 GENERAL ^' lEW OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

rapine, murder, and exterminating war were sure to 
follow. 

While treating all foreigners with politeness, and 
while ever ready to rescue the distressed of any na- 
tion, the Hudson's Bay Company were exceedingly 
jealous of interference in their trade. They would 
not have their prices changed, nor their hunters de- 
moralized, if by any possibility they could prevent it. 
Compacts were often made with the Russians and 
with the captains of American vessels trading on the 
coast, not to deviate from the company's tariff, and 
not to sell liquor to the natives, which promises were 
not always kept. 

In the Fort Simpson journal, under date of Novem- 
ber 1, 1836, I find entered: "Captain Snow, of the 
bank Lagrange, saluted the body of a Sinisej'an chief 
who died of small-pox, with five guns, and now he is 
getting all the trade of the tribe — a contemptible 
Yankee trick." Twenty years previous to this entr}', 
a figlit occurred between an American coasting vessel 
and the Chilcats, in which one hundred of the latter 
were killed. When the Hudson's Bay people estab 
lished Fort Tako, the Chilcats treated them with 
marked suspicion, "It is rather too bad," writes 
Douglas in his journal, "to hold us responsible for 
the sins of others, particularly of a people to whom 
we are indebted for no interchange of good offices." 
The natives early learned to distinguish the King 
George men from the Bostons, not by dress, but by 
features and speech, and to the no small disparage- 
ment of the latter. Nor did the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany exert themselves to promote good-fellowship 
between their dusky proteges and American traders. 
Yet I am very sure that no violent or unfair steps 
were ever taken by officers of the company to rid 
themselves of interlopers. They would tell the na- 
tives to beware of them, to have nothing to do with 
them, and that was all. 

Though ready on the instant to draw, the Hudson's 



JUST TREATMENT. 49 

Bay Company were slow to use their M^eapons On the 
natives. The punishment of insolence or other petty 
offence was to knock the offender down, and the offi- 
cers, from governor to clerk, prided themselves on their 
superior skill in the manly art. ''However expert the 
Indians may be at the knife, or the spear, or the gun," 
says Simpson, " they are invariably taken aback by a 
white fist on their noses." An offence was seldom 
allowed to go unpunished, and the company were as 
ready to do justice as to exact it. "It was a general 
rule," says Tod, "to mete to the Indians justice. 
They would bring sometimes two or three hundred 
dollars' worth of furs ; they could not count more than 
ten. I would always try to make them count for 
themselves by explaining how to do it; but they 
would always trust us to count " 

It is a great mistake to fling all aboriginal men and 
women into one category and damn them as savages. 
As elsewhere on this planet there are good Indians 
and bad Indians, honest men and tender-hearted 
women, as well as thieves and murderers. I have at 
hand scores of remarkable instances illustrative of 
the honesty and humanity of the natives of British 
Columbia. So reconciled to civilized supremacy did 
they become under the just treatment which they re- 
ceived, that whereas at first, in this or other regions, 
white men could traverse the country only in bands 
of thirty or forty, a single person belonging to the 
all-powerful fur company, or having its protection, 
could now go and come at pleasure anywhere in Brit- 
ish Columbia, passing in safety through the lands of 
scores of tribes hostile to each other, as one whose 
life and property were things sacred. 

Their nobler nature was easily worked upon; many 
of them would scorn to do things which white Chris- 
tians practise on one another without remorse of con- 
science. They loved honor and power; Chinamen and 
negroes they regarded with supreme contempt. Half- 
breeds have not proved a success. 

UisT. Brit. Col. i 



50 GENERAL VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

The* statement of an intelligent officer of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, as to their policy with regard to 
the natives, may be better than mine. A. C. Ander- 
son devotes considerable space in his manuscript His- 
tory of the Northwest Coast to this subject. The great 
fur companies of British America, he says, owe their 
success to the rigid discipline maintained among their 
servants, and the exercise of prudence and humanity 
in their transactions with the natives. Offences and 
insurrections were nipped in the bud by such cool 
audacity on the part of the superior race, as to excite 
at once admiration and fear in the breast of the 
savage. Punishment of crimes was swift and sure; 
but it was inflicted only on the guilty. To guard 
against surprise, almost all stations were surmounted 
by stockades, with armed bastions at the opposite 
angles. Against desultory outbreaks these forts were 
proof, but not against well organized attack; but by 
holding the balance of power among contending chiefs 
the fur-traders were almost always able to prevent 
formidable attacks. Anderson regards the missionary 
operations among the aborigines as no less injudicious 
than unsuccessful. 

Peace, therefore, we may conclude characterized 
the intercourse of the resident fur- traders with the 
natives, and that friendship was absolutely essential 
to traffic. An attache of the company sufficient^ 
offending was dismissed the service; this the savages 
knew, though it seldom happened. It was sometimes 
exceedingly difficult, however, for the trader to pre- 
serve his patience. The natives of New Caledonia 
were often uncouth and rude, surly, lazy, and to 
strangers in small parties, insolent and quarrelsome. 
Yet there were the gentle Shush waps, the jolly Car- 
riers, the knightly Ca^aises, and others with like good 
qualities, whose lives might preach perpetual sermons 
to congresses of philosophers. There were the filthy 
little civil and faithful Kootenais, the brave and 
stately Pend d'Oreilles, and the fierce Nehannes above 



A TRADE JARGON. 51 

Stikcen, whose female chief rescued Mr Campbell in 
the winter of 1838-9, and treated him with much 
kindness. There was Nicola, chief of the Okanagans, 
and ever the champion of the right; his neighbor, 
Khig "VVanquille, of the Shushwaps, patriarch and 
philanthropist, and old King Freezy of the Songhics, 
the last of a dynasty running down the centuries. 
This last-named chieftian was a character. Indeed, all 
Indian chiefs are notable men, else they would not be 
chiefs. King Freezy loved obedience, and commanded 
it. He loved wives, of which at one time he had no 
less than fifteen, and he commanded them. It was 
a favorite pastime of his to cut off a wife's head, and 
one in which he indulged so often, that in 1859 he 
had but six left. He died in 18G4, and was duly 
lamented by the sorrowing survivors of the faithful 
fifteen. 

To facilitate communication between Europeans 
and the natives of the Northwest Coast, with their 
numerous dialects, a trade language was adopted at 
an early day, called the Cliinook jargon, being for the 
greater part a mixture of Chinook, French-Cana- 
dian, and English words, with perhaps a few additions 
from the Hawaiian and Spanish languages. This 
jargon varied somewhat witli the various tribes, each 
contributing for local use some of the words of their 
own language; but for the most part it was the 
same among all the tribes of a very wide area, and 
was adopted for general use, not only between whites 
and Indians, but between the different tribes them- 
selves. Of tlie aboriginal languages the Chinook was 
taken as the base, owing to the fact that the Chinooks 
about the mouth of the Columbia were the first to 
come into intimate and continuous intercourse with 
Europeans. After the building of Fort Astoria the 
jargon rapidly spread toward the east and north. 



CHAPTER III. 

OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 

1841. 

Aboriginal British Columbia— Forts and Fur-traders — Systems op 
Communication — Inherent Power of Civilization over Savagism — 
Fur-trading Districts — Stations— Missionary and Agricultural 
Settlements — Interior Forts — Coast Stations — The British and 
THE Russian Fur Companies — The Hudson's Bay Company's Circu- 
lating Library — Joint Occupancy of the Northwest Coast by Eng- 
land AND the United States— The Treaty Dividing the Domain — ■ 
The Northwest Coast Immediately Prior to the Beginning of 
British Columbia History Proper— Visit of Douglas to the Several 
Posts — Sitka andEtholin — Quarrel between Douglas and McNeill 
— Survey of the Stikeen and Tako Region — References for This 
and the Preceding Chapter. 

British Columbia in 1841 was a silent wilderness. 
Its lords were natural, healthful, and free. Its wild 
beasts, birds, and fishes were multitudinous and fear- 
less. Its forest-plumed hill-sides and its ravines whis- 
pered ceaselessly their soft psalmody; its plains and 
transfixed billows bared their breasts to the coveted 
warmth of the all-embracing sun; while its snow- 
silvered mountain-tops, each a savage Olympus, marked 
tJie earth's limits to the dusky intellects within their 
embrace, and shed a dazzling radiance over the happy 
hunting-grounds of the Invisible. Nature's perfect 
work was here; inexorable as everywhere; now warm 
and kind and beautiful; again cold, cruel, ghastly. 
Yet the nations of this domain were doomed; the 
sheltering forests and the innumerable forms of life 
that animated them were impregnated wdth the poison 
of progress; for already the subtle, unfelt clutch of 
civilization was on the land. 



INLAND NAVIGATION. 53 

These little picketed enclosures appearing at inter- 
vals of two or three hundred miles, like secluded fox- 
holes in boundless prairies — what are theyl To the 
unenlightened vision of the thoughtless red man they 
are magazines of celestial comforts, arms which give 
the possessor superhuman power in war and in the 
chase; containing implements of iron and steel whose 
cunning causes even nature to blush ; WH)ven wool w4iich 
wards off cold, disease, and death; glittering trinkets 
whose wealth raises wrinkled imbecility above the 
attractions of youth and talents; and above all, tobacco 
and that blessed drink of heaven which, indeed, can 
minister to a mind diseased, while placing the body for 
a time bej^ond the reach of pain. To their builders, and 
to the white race everywhere, these solitary and con- 
tracted pens have a far different signification. They 
are depots of compressed power, dominating the land 
and all that is therein ; they are gerins of the highest 
human type, Aviiich shall shortly spring up and over- 
spread the wilderness, causing it to wither beneath its 
fatal shade. 

The system of communication between Montreal 
and Hudson Bay and the tributaries of the Arctic 
and the Pacific was quite complete. Along the main 
rivers, along the links of w^aters, where lakes and 
streams succeeded each other so as to form a continu- 
ous line of travel, having the greatest amount of navi- 
gable waters with the shortest portages and the least 
possible amount of land travel, were chains of posts 
with outposts, subordinate establishments or feeders 
on either side on all the minor streams, and in local- 
ities off the main chains wherever peltries were to be 
profitabh^ purchased. Twice every year over all these 
lines of communication passed regular brigades or ex- 
presses bringing into the central posts the furs on 
hand, and carrying back fort supplies and trading 
goods. The Columbia River and the Saskatchewan 
with its two branches, and the chain of lakes to the 



54 OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAEs. 

eastward, have ever been the arteries cf travel in the 
Hudson's Bay Company's territories. 

Canoes and horses were chief among the aids of 
transportation. When these failed, the backs of voy- 
ageurs and natives were employed. Sometimes in 
winter the ubiquitous fur-buyers flitted hither and 
thither on sleds and snow-shoes, often finding them- 
selves among the tree-tops forty feet from solid ground. 
And most fortunate were they if they could hold to 
their course, avoid precipitous banks and chasms, and 
keep themselves above the snow instead of being 
buried under it. 

Where shaH we see more forcibly displayed the 
power of trained and enlightened intellect over the 
uncultivated mind and bestiality ! Scattered in small 
bands over an area equal to one half of Xorth Amer- 
ica, in the midst of ferocious savages outnumbering 
tliem a thousand to one, these few individual white 
men held absolute sway; having first brought their 
own passions under obedience to mind, they imposed 
obedience upon the passions of these wdld and lawless 
inhabitants of the forest. This living and laboring in 
savage countries was attended by many dangers and 
peculiarities which became as a second nature to these 
hardy and courageous men. Nor was the influence 
altogether that of civilization upon savagism. To no 
small extent the traders and voyageurs became so far 
imbued with nature as to marry aborigines and adopt 
many primitive customs. Even the Oregon settlers of 
1831-4 became half-savage in some of their Ways; the 
women, for example, being unable to procure cloth for 
dresses, adopted the caliquartee, or cedar-bark petti- 
coat of the natives, the fibres being twisted into cords, 
or frayed from the waist to the knees. This with 
a piece of green or scarlet baize over the shoulders 
completed the costume. The men were glad to get a 
shirt, with sometimes a blanket. The servants of 
the fur companies were always comfortably clad, the 



GENERAL DIVISIONS. 55 

capote, or hooded cloak, being conspicuous. A uni- 
form was worn at first, but afterward was laid aside. 

In domestic economies, even in personal bearing 
and mode of speech, the traders copied largely, though ' 
evidently unconsciously, from their aboriginal friends. 
Like the Indians, the fur-traders were remarkable 
for graphic diction whenever their habitual reticence 
allowed their oral powers full play. Now and then 
a fur-governor from beyond the mountains illumined 
nature by his presence, on which occasion traders 
everywhere were tremulous with excitement, and the 
denizens of the forest spellbound as the mighty man 
passed b}". 

On the consolidation of the Northwest and Hudson's 
Bay companies in 1821 the upper interior was known 
to the fur-traders as the Columbia district. Three 
years later we find Archibald Macdonald, then clerk of 
one of the Thompson Kiver posts, drawing a map, "with 
much detail and w^onderful correction," as his editor, 
McLeod says, in which the territory between the 
Columbia River and the Arctic Ocean was laid down 
as the Thompson River district. Soon after, and 
w^hile yet the whole region noi'th of California was 
generally designated as the Oregon territory, the 
New Caledonia district was portioned off in the in- 
terior, and on the coast we find, following the fanc}' of 
Vancouver, and beginning at Mount St Elias, New 
Norfolk, New Cornwall, New Hanover, New Geor- 
gia, and New Albion, the last named reaching down 
to San Francisco Bay. New Georgia lay between 
Nootka Sound and the mouth of the Columbia 
River, and New Hanover next above to Queen Char- 
lotte Island. 

In early times all the country north of California, 
all the region drained b}^ the River of the West, as 
well as the seaboard was called Oregon. It was then 
a mystic land, a region of weird imagery and fable. 
In the spring of 1832 there was not a single United 
States settler in all the Oregon territory. It was 



56 OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 

during this year that American emigration to 
Oregon began. Certain Frencli-Canadian famihes, 
formerly servants or retainers of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, with the fatherly advice and assistance of 
Jolni McLoughlin, had previously opened farms in the 
rich valley of the Willamette and on the banks of the 
Columbia. It was the French who were first in 
Oregon, who had been first in the Mississippi Yalley, 
who had been foremost in Canada, and Vv^ho at one 
time had dominated four fifths of North America ; 
it was the humble descendants of this chivalrous race 
who first opened for cultivation these lands primeval, 
and paved the way for the harder-headed Anglo- 
Saxon. 

On Twiss' map, London, 1846, Oregon extends 
from latitude 42° to 54° 40' west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. It includes the Queen Charlotte and Van- 
couver islands, and all the mainland drained by the 
Fi'aser and Columbia rivers. McKinlay divides the 
country west of the Rocky Mountains into two dis- 
tricts: the Columbia, extending to Utah and California; 
and New Caledonia, reaching from Thompson River 
to the Russian possessions. Were this ever officially 
the case, such partition did not so remain long, before 
the territory was redistricted. Says Anderson : " The 
extent of New Caledonia may be briefly indicated as 
comprising the tract watered by the Eraser and its 
tributaries from the Rocky Mountains and Coast 
Range down to the point about twenty miles below 
Alexandria, now known as Soda Creek." Tlien comes 
the Thompson River district. Vancouver's territorial 
nomenclature was never put into practical use, nor 
were the fur company's districtings officially retained 
after the erection of British Columbia into a province. 
British Columbia to-day embraces broadly all lands 
and islands west of the summit of the Rocky Moun- 
tains lying between Washington and Alaska. 

In 1839 the Willamette settlement, begun ten years 
previous by a retired servant of the Hudson's Bay 



THE VARIOUS POSTS. 67 

Company, numbered fifty-four men, and about as 
many farms. There were four other stations of Amer- 
ican missionaries, one at the Dalles, one at Walla 
Walla, one on tlie Clearwater, and one at Spokane. 
Five vessels performed the coast service. Paul Fraser 
was in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company's estab- 
lishment at Umpqua when the influx of Americans 
was so great as materially to jeopardize the interests 
of the fur-traders in that quarter. 

Upon a continental apex not unlike that in the 
vicmity of the national park which separates the 
waters of the Missouri, the Columbia, and the Colo- 
rado, stood Fort St James, the capital of this west- 
ern Caledonia. Old Mr Harrison once commanded 
there, and so did young James Douglas before honors 
and titles thickened around him. 

Its site was the south-eastern end of Stuart Lake, 
and it was the central figure of a cluster of forts. 
Twenty-five miles south-westerly was Fort Fraser; 
sixty miles south-easterly was Fort George; eighty 
miles north-easterly was Fort McLeod, and one hun- 
dred miles north-westerly was Fort Babine. South- 
ward from this highland flow the waters of the 
Fraser; northward and westward the Skeena; north- 
ward and eastward Peace River winding through the 
Pocky Mountains and thence onward to tlie frozen 
ocean. 

Later for a time in charge of the New Caledonia 
department, was Chief Factor Ogden, whose head- 
quarters were at Fort St James on Stuart Lake. 
On Lakes Fraser, Babine, and McLeod were forts of 
the same names. Fort Thompson was on the Kam- 
loops Piver; and from Fort Alexandria on Fraser 
Piver, the station of a chief trader, the northern 
brigade took its departure going north. At McLeod 
Fort, where the genial wide-mouthed Tod used to 
welcome governors to an empty larder, was one of 
the most prohfic fur-fields. Before Tod at this post 
was Peter Warren Dease, and after Tod was Mr Mc- 



CS OCCUPATION 01' THE DOMAIN. 

Intosli, subsequently shot by tlie savages. The post 
at Babine was built by Chief Trader Brown in 182G-7. 
In charge of Fort Langley was Yale; Bae was at 
Yerba Buena, and Simpson at the Hawaiian Island 
agency Wilkes counted '^six permanent establish- 
ments on the coast and sixteen in the interior, besides 
several migratory and hunting parties." 

Kootenai and Flathead were outposts of Colville, 
and yielded annually forty packs of peltries; Chilco- 
tin sent in four packs, and Alexandria from twenty to 
thirty packs. Fort St James was a profitable station, 
sending down yearly furs worth in London £50,000, 
if we may believe Wilkes, which I for one do not, 
especially when coupled with the statement that only 
twenty-five cents in goods was there paid for a beaver- 
skin worth at Fort Vancouver ten times that sum. 
It was only one year prior to the date of this chapter 
that Samuel Black, while in charge of Kamloops, 
was killed by a nephew of Wanquille. Some few of 
the company's posts, like the missionary establish- 
ments of California, became subsequently the nuclei 
of little settlements, particularly those in gold-pro- 
ducing parts. 

Every year the chief factor or chief trader having 
charge of a district would go to Fort Vancouver and 
thence conduct a brigade of supplies to his distribut- 
ing depot, employing for that purpose boats, men, and 
horses according to the nature of the region traversed. 
From Fort Vancouver to Fort St James, for example, 
the transport was made by boats to Okanagan, and 
thence to Kamloop and Fort Alexandria by horses, 
in bands of from two hundred to three hundred. 
From Fort Alexandria to Fort St James merchandise 
was conveyed in canoes. 

It was a hazardous occupation, as I have said, a 
large amount of imperfectly guarded property being 
constantly exposed to the cupidity of the savages, to 
say nothing of the dangers of navigation. The port- 
ages made arduous the voyage up the Columbia, and 



ROUTES OF TRAVEL 59 

tliG land travel between Okanagan and Kamloop was 
particularly rough. The distance from Fort Van- 
couver to Kamloop, following the sinuosities of rivers 
and trails, was seven or eight hundred miles, though 
supplies were carried in this direction more than twice 
that distance. 

Kamloop was the capital of the Thompson River 
district proper. The fort was compact and well pal- 
ifc;adcd ; and within the stockades, standing at a little 
distance, there was room enouGfh for the larf:i^est horse 
brigades together wdth their accoutrements. 

To the eye of the inhabitant of these lonely wdlds, 
whether white skin or red, the arrival of the horse 
brigade was a thrilling sight. Through the deep 
ravines, round precipitous mountain-sides, and over 
bills and plains they had come; sleek, fat animals, 
usually perfect m form and color, bearing the burdens 
which had been carefully brought so far, from beyond 
continents and seas, and all to be laid at the feet of 
the lordly savage. 

The stations on the coast were Fort Langley and 
Fort Simpson, the former the first sea fort in British 
Columbia, the latter tremblingly erected among some 
of the wickedest savages upon the coast. Then there 
were Fort McLoughlin on Milbank Sound, and Fort 
Tako on the Tako Kiver. Yet, so well was the mat- 
ter arranged, that a footing was obtained without 
fighting for it, and an almost impregnable fortress wa.s 
erected. By the aid of these two establishments, 
which w^ere regularly served from Fort Vancouver, 
first by the schooner Cadhoro, Captain Simpson, and 
subsequently by the steamer Beaver, the indomitable 
^lore engineer, American opposition was finally driven 
from the coast. 

Plying the wilderness of water between forts Van- 
couver and Tako, sometimes venturing boldly out to 
sea, sometimes creeping more prudently through the 
labyrinth of islands and canals between Nisqually and 
Sitka, these historical craft of the Xorthwcst Coast 



60 OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 

came and went, playing no insignificant part in the 
great work of human overturnings hereabout. 

At first a few goods had been brought over the 
mountains from eastern ports. But so difficult and ex- 
]:)ensive was this mode of transport that it was soon 
abandoned, and all supplies for the western slope 
were brought from England to Fort Vancouver round 
Ca23e Horn. The coast trade was confined to the 
coast tribes, and had nothing to do with the inland 
trade conducted by the old route from Fort Vancou- 
ver up the Columbia to Okanagan, Kamloop, and 
Fort St James. Communication with the coast ports 
was had at first by schooners sailing regularly from 
Fort Vancouver, and subsequently by the company's 
steamers. This coast trade was at the first not profit- 
able, but was persevered in for many years at a heavy 
loss, in order to clear the shore forever of Boston ships 
and Boston men. 

Between these two lines of traffic intervened the 
Cascade Kange, an obstacle to free commercial inter- 
course which might have been overcome by the com- 
pany had they chosen to do so. But this partition 
Avail was not without its benefit, separating as it did 
interior tribes from the influence and opposition of 
foreign traders along the coast. 

Prior to the discovery of gold in California, which 
raised no small commotion throughout all the Colum- 
bia and New Caledonia regions, John Lee Lewes, 
conspicuous among all the officers of the company for 
dashing dress, held command at Fort Colville. He 
was succeeded in 1848 by Alexander C. Anderson. 
Besides fine personal appearance, Lewes possessed 
many good qualities. Indeed, since Northwest rivalry 
had so sharpened wit, the service enforced the ap- 
pointment only of able and energetic men. Where 
strength of mind and body were so essentially requi- 
site, favoritism went for less than it did formerly 



FiMlMS ESTABLISHED. 61 

In my History of the Northwest Coast I have stated 
that in the lease of a portion of the Russian territory 
to the Hudson's Bay Company for a term of ten years 
from 1809, afterward increased several years more, 
it was stipulated that during such occupation the 
Russian American Fur Company should purchase all 
their European goods from the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, who, also, alone were to supply such agricul- 
tural products as the several Russian posts and vessels 
should require. 

Now the Russians were hearty eaters, and not 
over-fond of w^ork. Exercise sufficient for an appetite 
they could get by beating their poor seal-hunters, the 
Aleuts and Koniagas, who likewise grew hungry 
under the process. Even these latter raised little or 
no produce. But whence were to come the fruits of 
the soil upon which the Hudson's Bay Company had 
promised to feed them? Some little planting had 
been done at Colville, Fort Vancouver, and the Willa- 
mette and Cowlitz valleys, but barety sufficient for the 
company's own requirements. The British fur-hunters 
were but little more inclined to agriculture than were 
the Russian traders. There were these points of 
difference, however, between the two : the former had 
suitable soil and climate with enterprise and thrift 
to exercise upon it, all which the latter lacked. At 
all events, before making their bargain, they were 
supposed to have sufficiently weighed results, and 
would in due time furnish the provisions agreed upon. 
Some they could get from California, some from the 
Hawaiian Islands; but such in the main was not 
their purpose. They preferred to develop home 
resources. 

To this end the management determined to open 
other farms upon the banks of the Columbia, and in 
the rich Willamette Valley; for which purpose, during 
the same year of 1839, English and Scotch farmers 
were brought from Canada across the mountains, and 
placed in the several most favorable parts of the 



62 OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 

country. Likewise French Canadians and half-breeds 
retiring from the service of the company were encour- 
aged to settle upon lands, the best of which were to 
be had without asking, and become tillers of the soil. 

In the vicinity of Fort Vancouver, and else- 
where, the areas of agriculture were soon greatly 
enlarged, and grist-mills erected for making the 
several grades of flour required for the Russian 
American trade. More sheep and cattle were being- 
driven up from California, and the Sandwich Islands 
swine were permitted rapidly to increase. The plains 
near Fort Nisqually were turned into sheep and 
cattle ranges, and the Puget Sound Agricultural 
Company was inaugurated. Hence it was not long- 
before wheat, flour, butter, pork, and other articles 
in no considerable quantities were ready for shipment 
to the Russian posts, not alone of the American, but 
of the Asiatic coast, and four barks of eight hun- 
dred tons each were built in London for the exporta- 
tion of Hudson's Bay Company's produce. 

Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour report: "At Nis- 
qually, near the head of Puget Sound, is the farm of 
the Puget Sound Company, commenced in 1839, and 
supported chiefly by the gentlemen of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. They here cultivate wheat and pota- 
toes, etc., but the magnificent range of rich prairie 
country between the shores of Puget Sound and the 
Cascade Mountains to the east are chiefly used as 
pasturage for the immense herds of cattle and sheep, 
the greater number of which were brought from Cali- 
fornia in 1840-1." Operations here were under the 
management of W. F. Tolmie for the Puget Sound 
Agricultural Company, an offshoot of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. Anderson and Niell did the honors 
at this post upon the occasion of the visit of the 
United States exploring squadron in 1841, It was 
then in the full beauty of growing fields and well-kept 
gardens, with a fine dairy attached. 

Crops were raised by the company at Fort Van- 



A CIRCULATING LIBRARY. 63 

conver until 1850, but after 1846 the farms declined, 
and the Russian Company contracts, which, prior to 
that time had been filled from Fort Vancouver, were 
afterward shipped from Oregon City and Champoeg, 
the necessary produce being obtained by purchase. 

W. F. Tolmie states that he first met Mr Ander- 
son at Milbank Sound in December 1833, where ho 
replaced Anderson as clerk. There, in connection 
with Chief Trader Donald Manson, he "conceived the 
idea of establishing a circulating library among the 
ofiicers of the company. Anderson, on reaching Fort 
Vancouver, ventilated the matter. It was readily 
taken up by Dr McLoughlin and Mr Douglas. A sub- 
scription library was formed which did much good for 
about ten years, soon after which time it was broken 
up. The oflScers subscribed, sent the order for books 
and periodicals to the companj^'s agent in London; the 
books were sent out, and as everybody had subscribed, 
they were sent to all the forts throughout the length 
and breadth of the land. The library was kept at Fort 
Vancouver, subscribers sending for such books as they 
wanted, and returning them when read. Finally the 
books were divided among such of the subscribers as 
cared about having them. The Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, by their ships, sent out the Times and other lead- 
ing papers for circulation. This was the first circulating- 
library on the Pacific Slope, extending from 1833 to 
1843." 

It should be borne in mind that the territory west 
of the Rocky ]\Ioun tains and north of California was 
at this time lield by agreement in joint occupancy by 
Great Britain and the United States. That the par- 
tition line must be drawn somewhere and shortly was 
well understood. Some little ill-will had been engen- 
dered between the subjects and citizens of the two 
powers thus brought into anomalous contact. Both 
sides claimed a rigl>t to occupy the territory, though 



64 OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 

neither knew much about it It was bad blood only 
that was stirred ; it was ignorance and stupidity only 
that became blatant. When the not most reliable or 
refined element in the United States, poverty-stricken, 
with barefooted and bareheaded wives and children, 
and teams of bony oxen and empty wagons straggled 
through the mountains, the officers of the Hudson's 
Bay Company behaved most nobly. They fully be- 
lieved their right to the territory as good as that of 
the others. Though holding under the stipulated terms 
of joint occupancy, their domination in these parts had 
been from the beginning absolute and continuous. 
They inherited from the Northwest Company, who 
bought from the Pacific Company, which latter was 
supposed to be an American incorporation, though 
made up almost wholly of foreigners. Between the 
shock-headed, dirt-becoated, tobacco - spitting, and 
swearing ox-drivers from the United States border 
and the educated and punctilious business men of the 
fur monopoly there was a marked contrast, and the 
latter, I say, behaved nobly. 

There was much in this immigration to exasperate 
them. The interlopers, as from their standpoint they 
could but regard them, had come to spoil their trade, 
to drive away the game, to demoralize the natives, and 
to take tlie land for cultivation. Even if they did not 
so declare, such would be the inevitable effect. And yet 
they were kindly treated, and fed and clothed, as we 
have many times seen in the pursuance of this history. 
And I hold it churlish in any American, or in any 
man, to deny McLoughlin, Douglas, Work, and Og- 
den, and all the rest of these fearless, warm-hearted, 
open-handed, and clear-headed Scotch, Irish, and Eng- 
lish men, their full meed of praise. It is not a ques- 
tion tliat turns upon the relative merits and demerits 
of the nations; such discussion I leave entirely to 
the stump-orators and long-eared logicians on either 
side. I deal only with men; and it matters not one 
vvhit with me the accidents of color, creed, or country. 



FUR-HUNTERS AND SETTLERS. C5 

The representatives ()f the two nationalities, tlius 
meeting in oppugnant interests in the new North- 
west, were of totally different classes, and in review- 
ing their character, they cannot be justly };laced upon 
tlie same plane. Among the self-sacrificing pioneers 
of the Pacific there were many intelligent, high- 
minded, and honorable men and devoted women, who, 
it is scarcely necessary for me to say to the reader 
of the previous volumes of this history, are worthy of 
every honor, every gratitude that history and pos- 
terity can give. Yet none of us can deny that among 
the emigrants were ignorant and ill-mannered men 
and slatternl}^ women, who in their attitude and deal- 
ings compared unfavorably Avith first-class business 
men trained to strict accountability from boyhood. 

Says my friend Elwood Evans, ever ready enough 
to do battle for his country: "It was a motley settle- 
ment, indeed, if we consider the caste to which each 
settler belonged, or the influence which brought him 
thither. There were the Hudson's Bay Company 
and its retainer;;, holding almost exclusive possession 
of the country, insidiously retarding and discouraging 
American settlement, and destroying by its policy of 
trade every American enterprise. Here, too, were 
the discharged or retired servants of the company, 
located in the country by its permission, and over 
whom it yet exercised controlling influence, men of 
every variety of color and nationality. Here and 
there were Americans who had dropped ou": of and 
remained behind the various companies and expedi- 
tions which had been crushed out or supplanted by 
the great monopoly of trade enjoj'ed by the Hudson's 
Bay Company, of necessity entertaining no very kind 
feeling toward the company, nor friendship for its 
studied and persistent attempts to convert Oregon 
into a British province. Then came the missionary 
colonies with denominational castes, each imbued with 
a leading pnnciple, true to themselves, yet zealous to 
outvie in evidences of successful labor their rivals in 

Hisr. Brit. Col. 5 



66 OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 

similar services; soon after whom, and last of all, fol- 
lowed the American emigrants proper, men, women, 
and children, seeking homes for themselves and their 
posterity, each in proper person asserting faith in the 
American title to Oregon, and prepared to struggle 
against every effort and influence which would wrest 
the country from the United States. Such was the 
Oregon of that period, and it is difficult, indeed, out 
of these heterogeneous elements, each having its own 
peculiar history, to present an intelligible and intelli- 
gent view of affairs." 

The treaty of 1846, which drew the dividing line 
between American and British territory on the Pa- 
cific, befitting in my mind the history of Oregon 
rather than the history of British Columbia, has been 
fully analyzed in a previous volume. Its effect upon 
the interests of United States settlers was primary 
and immediate; its effect on the fur-traders was to 
remove their operations farther to the northward. 
Nor should the fact be lost sight of in any discussion 
of the differences arising between the fur-traders and 
the settlers, tliat the Hudson's Bay Company w^as by 
no means a free and full representation of the British 
nation. They were simply an incorporated commer- 
cial association, acting for themselves, solely in their 
own pecuniary interests, and w^ere as deadly opposed 
to opposition from people of their own nationality as 
from those of any other nation. 

I cannot do better, in concludmg this general view 
of the Northwest Coast at the beginning of British 
Columbia history proper, than to give a resume of 
the doings of James Douglas immediately antecedent 
to the opening of operations on Vancouver Island ; 
that gentleman being then not only foremost in north- 
coast fur affairs, but rapidly rising to sole rulership 
in the commercial and political interests of Pacific 
British America. The information here given is epit- 
omized from his journals of 1840-1. 



DOUGLAS' JOURNAL. 67 

Leaving' Fort Vancouver the 22d of April 1840, 
Douglas passed round by the Cowlitz to Nisqually, 
where he learned of the total destruction of Fort 
Langley by fire. The object of the present expedi- 
tion was the occupation of the Stikeen post, lately 
leased from the Russians, and the building of another 
establishment on the Tako Iliver, also within Russian 
territor}^ 

The destruction of Langley at this juncture was 
ill-timed and inconvenient, depending as they were on 
that post for salt provisions, which it was now too 
late to obtain from any other source. The lessors of 
the hyperborean domains, therefore, must depend 
alone upon the ravens of their religion, as they had 
often done elsewhere, to feed them. Douglas could 
but remark in passing on the early depopulation of 
the Cowlitz country, for of the once numerous in- 
habitants there now remained but sixty men. He 
attributes the cause to ague and the mysterious ways 
of providence. 

The first ague summer, says Plomondo, one of the 
first to settle there, was in 1830, when "the living 
suflSced not to bury their dead, but fled in terror to 
the sea-coast, abandoning the dead and dying to the 
birds and beasts of prey. Every village presented a 
scene harrowing to the feelings ; the canoes were there 
drawn up upon the beach, the nets extended on the 
willow boughs to dry, the very dogs appeared as ever 
vratchful, but there was not heard the cheerful sound 
of the human voice. The green woods, the music of 
birds, the busy humming of the insect tribes, the 
bright summer sky, spoke of life and happiness, while 
the abode of, man was silent as the grave, and like it 
filled with putrid, festering carcasses." All hail, sweet 
sympathizing friends; providence, civilization, and the 
ague await your coming to reap alike rich harvests in 
the more virgin north. 

Proceeding from Nisqually in the steamer to Lang- 
ley, Douglas there found Yale busy erecting a new 



68 OCCUPATION OF THE DOAIADf. 

stockade. Twenty men from the steamer were loaned 
the fort-builders for a short time; after which the 
vessel continued its way, taking in wood and water at 
the north end of Tejada Island, buying fifty beaver- 
skins from the saucy natives of the Comux village off 
Point Mudge, who were yet unreclaimed by Chris- 
tianity and undisciplined by civilized ague, and an- 
choring in McNeill Harbor on the 8th of May. 

Opening trade with the Quackolls from Cheslakee, 
twenty sea-otter and seventy beaver were bought. 
Continuing, a few skins were traded at Port Bull; 
500 bushels of potatoes, 500 pieces of cedar bark, and 
thirty cords of wood were taken on board at Fort 
McLoughlin, and on the 14th Fort Simpson was 
reached. Thence by way of Stikeen, Douglas went 
to Sitka and talked with Etholin, the Russian gov- 
ernor, about their territorial bounds and trade, which 
questions were satisfactorily settled. Each might 
buy provisions anywhere, but furs only within their 
own territory. A tariff was agreed upon for the 
Indian traffic, and some furs were exchanged between 
themselves. Permission was granted the Hudson's 
Bay Company to buy sheep at Bodega provided the 
sanction of the California authorities could be obtained, 
but not otherwise. The Russians offered to sell Bo- 
dega for $30,000, with 1,500 sheep at one and a half 
dollars cash, and 3,000 cattle and horses at ten dollars 
each. Etholin had sugar enough to last him four 
years, but he would take some blankets, and agree to 
furnish two hundred pairs of Finland shoes at five 
shillings each. Douglas offered to grind part of their 
wheat into fine flour, but Etholin replied that his 
people did not use much fine flour. The question of 
selling arms and alcohol to savages was opened and 
closed without effecting anything; the Sitka people 
did so love liquor, and arms were essential to success- 
ful hunting. As to next year's supply of provisions, 
the Russians would want one hundredweight of but- 
ter; if they did not sell Bodega, they could there cure 



DOUGLAS AND ETHOLLN. 69 

all the beef they would require, they would receive 
grain in California if the Hudson's Bay Company 
would pa}' the freight to Sitka. 

Thus these dignitaries dickered, each holding the 
other's business methods in contempt. Douglas here 
growls over several pages. The two Russian estab- 
lishments visited by him were crowded with lazy 
and idle officers and men. It was bad, the appoint- 
ing of naval officers to the command, who knew 
nothing of the service; it was bad having officers 
wholly unqualified for business undertakings, whose 
term of service was only five years, and who drew pay 
from both the government and the fur company. Fif- 
teen vessels were kept constantly afloat in the Rus- 
sian service, and six thousand dollars were expended 
annually for provisions. The seal islands were not so 
productive as formerly, and they were now obliged to 
pursue a course of nursing, only fifteen thousand of 
the superfluous young males being now alloAved to be 
killed annually. Twenty-five thousand beaver and 
otter were traded each year, at a net profit not to ex- 
ceed twenty per cent on the capital employed. Their 
furs were mostly exchanged on the China frontier for 
teas, at the rate of seventy-five roubles, or fifteen dol- 
lars, for otter, and fifteen roul)les for beaver. In all 
which Douglas doubtless was right. 

Returning'" to Stikeen, a niisunderstandinof arose 
between Douglas, commander of the expedition, and 
McNeill, captain of the steamer, a brief account of 
which will best illustrate the nmtual relations and 
duties of tliese officials in the company's service. 

The hours of labor were from six to six. In taking 
on wood, Saturday, the 30th of May, Douglas, being 
anxious to exjiedite aflairs, ordered work continued 
until nine o'clock at night. The captain disliked to 
drive the men so hard, lest they should complain, 
and reasonably, as it was against the rules of the 
ship. Prayers were held on Sunday between one and 
two, and after further resting until four, Douglas 



70 OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 

ordered the wooding to proceed, the captain remain- 
ing ashore all day in an ill humor. Next morning 
McNeill was more angry than ever, and on encoun- 
tering Douglas in the cabin, addressed him in an agi- 
tated manner. 

"Mr Douglas, if you interfere with the duties of 
the ship, I will leave her as soon as we get to Fort 
Simpson." 

"In what instance sir have I interfered with the 
ship's duties ? " 

"In various ways." 

'•You would oblige me, sir, by more explicit infor- 
mation. It was certainly never iiiy intention to do 
anything on board this ship to diminish the respect 
due to you. However, in my ignorance of naval 
routine, I may have inadvertently trespassed on some 
point of etiquette, and I wish you to point it out, that 
I may avoid it in future." 

"The mate, an hour ago, asked me whose orders he 
should obey — ^j^ours or mine." 

"Call him. Sir, why did you put such a qusstion 
to the captain?" 

"Because you gave me several orders yesterday 
when the captain was ashore." 

"Did I ever tell you, sir, to disobey the captain's 
orders?" 

"No, sir." 

"Well, sir, you have acted very improperly, and in 
a manner more becoming an inmate of the forecastle 
than a gentleman and an officer." 

"Very well, I will go away." 

"Go to the devil, sir, if you please," 

*'' Captain McNeill, I refuse duty," exclaimed the 
ma*e, as he left the cabin and went on deck. Douglas 
followed him, and ordered him back to the cabin The 
mate moved slowly and reluctantly. Douglas was 
very angr}". Seizing in his powerful grasp the collar 
of the mate's jacket, he shook him as he would have 
done a school-boy. 



EXPLOIIATIGN OF THP: TAKO. 71 

"Would jou lay violent hands on me?" shouted the 
mate. Instantly renicnibering himself, Douglas rc- 
L-ased liis hold, and the man marched quietly into the 
cabin. Douglas then assured the officers that he had 
no intention of interfering with their duties, but should 
lie deem it necessary at any time to issue orders, 
they must be obeyed by every person in the company's 
service, master and mate included. Mr Work vras 
now in charge of Fort Simpson, and Rae of Stikeen, 

While at the former place a few days, the ship 
I 'ancoivver arrived, whereupon Douglas was perplexed 
A\'hat disposition to make of the vessels, which were 
needed at once at the Columbia for general service, 
and there upon the north coast to assist in making 
rcad}^ the new establishments. He finally concluded 
to send both the sailing vessel and the steamer to 
deliver the outfits at Stikeen and Tako; thence to 
proceed to Sitka, returning to Simpson, when, if 
Work deemed it necessary, he might ship his furs to 
Fort Vancouver, meanwhile landing the outfit for 
Fort McLouo^hlin, and touchino- on the coast below 
for trade, that is to say, if a vessel unprovided with 
boarding-nettings, as was the Vancouver, might do so 
with safety. 

This plan Douglas proceeded to put into immediate 
execution, still retaining his place on board the Beaver, 
with Ixoderick Finlayson of the party. Arriving at 
Stephens Passage on the 17th of June, in the after- 
noon of the same day he set out with two armed 
boats and twenty men to explore the Tako Kiver to a 
distance of thirty-five miles, where his instructions 
informed him was to be placed the post of Tako. 
Three days were occupied in this expedition. The 
higher elevations everywhere were covered with ice 
and snow, the lower level with green grasses and flow- 
ering plants in full bloom. So strangely beautiful was 
it, so singular the contrast between the heavenly des- 
olation and the earthly paradise, that Douglas called 
it Eden. Yet so svrifb and dano^erous was the cur- 



72 OCCUPATION OF THE DOMAIN. 

rent, moreover being blocked by ice during the winter, 
that Douglas finally decided not to place the fort far 
up the river, but to build it where an intelligent native 
had directed him, some twenty miles south of Point 
Salisbury. Pickets and block-houses were quickly 
thrown up, and a salute fired on the fourth of July an- 
nounced the guns in place. Trading began, but it 
was not wholly satisfactory, the savages being so ab- 
sorbed in dealing in slaves, who were brought from 
a distance and used in commerce as a sort of currency, 
that they had but few skins left to buy whiskey with. 
Arrived at Take the 12th of August the Cadboro, 
bringing news from all the coast stations. Discharg- 
ing and receiving her cargo she soon set sail on her 
return voyage. Fort Vancouver being her destina- 
tion, while Nisqually was that of the Beaver. Be- 
fore leaving these parts Douglas made a short cruise 
into the neiofliborinof inlets to exhort the savaofes to 
bring their skins to Tako and buy some tobacco and 
blankets with them, and not waste them on filthy 
human beings. A lengthy account is given in his 
journal by Douglas, of the occurrences at the several 
stations during his return trip, which it is needless 
for me to reproduce. Year after year the company's 
vessels, with but little variation and with few inci- 
dents worth recording, coasted up and down, supply- 
ing the stations, and trading on the vessel's deck 
where no posts were established. During the follow- 
ing winter, 1840-1, Douglas visited California to pur- 
chase grain and send overland to the Columbia a large 
herd of live-stock. 



Much has been written on the climates, physical features, natural wealth, 
aborigines, and occupation of the Northwest Coast. I have given in the two 
preceding chapters but an outline. A volume would not exliaust the sub- 
ject. I am obliged, therefore, to refer those desirous of further infoi-mation 
upon the subject to other works, among which after ray Native Races of the 
Pacific States and the former volumes of this History of the Fa cific States, 
I may mention the following: A. C. Anderson, who in his Northwest Coast, 
MS., 228-32, discusses the climates of Stuart Lake and of Victoria, and de- 



AUTIIOIUTIES OX PHYSICAL FEATURES. 73 

votes a large part of liis prize essay on T!ie Dominion of tJu: Wv-ft to the 
geograpliical features of both islauds and mainland. 

On tha configuration and climate of Vancouver Island, see Forhes' Essay, 
C2, tlie harbors particularly; PemJ)ertons V. 1., 148, 150, on timber; Moffat's 
Jour., in Id., 14G, 1 iO, natural products; Jforetzhjs Canada on ike Pacific, 
passim; Hihhen's Cwde B. C, passim, on both islands and maiidand; Mac- 
donald's Lecture, 43-^; HazUtt's B. C, 217-18; Poole's Queen Charlotte Islands, 
58-61, for a good description of the harbors of Vancouver Island and tlie main- 
land opposite; Martins II. B., 32-5, copying Warre and Vavasotirs Beport, 
for physical aspect and resources of the island; Brit. JV. Am., 303-9, for 
game, timber, fish, fur, and coal. A'ictor says, Oretjon, 254, that there is but 
little good land on the island, though sheep-raising is carried on largely. 
The M-oalth of the island is in its timber, coal, and fisheries; probably gold, 
copper, and salt might be remunerative, frrant, London Geoj. Soc, Jour., 
xxvii. 238-320, gives a full description, remarking that the soil is ' rich where 
there is any. . .the singular system of inland seas by which it is environed 
teems with fish of every description, ' and that it is a fine seat for a colony. 
For the western side, see the A'oyages of Meares, Dixon, Cook, Sutil y Mexi- 
cana, A'ancouver, and for the interior, the journeys of ^Mackenzie, Lewis and 
Clarke, Fraser, Stuart, Simpson, Franchere, Cox, and others, and also the 
several {geological, geographical, and road and railway explorations. JIcLeod, 
Peace Licer, 5-0, states that the rivers and lakes north of Cariboo are seldo::i 
frozen after March, even on the plateau. Harmon in liis Journal, 191, calls 
attention to the raid of the far reaching branches of Peace River upon the 
^^'aters of the western side of the continental water-shed, both Fiadlay and 
Parsnip rivers, before their junction, running along the western base of the 
mountains with their stolen moisture, as if in search of a passage througli. 

Rattray, I'. /., 22-54, has a long chapter on the climate of Vancouver 
Island and British Columbia, its salubrity and variations, the force of winds, 
temperature, rainfall, barometric ranges, with tables and chart. Also 73-7 
an article on timber, its produce, uses, and value. Good, B. (?., MS., 53-114, 
gives a long description of a trip up the Fraser by steamer to Yale and thence 
Ijy road to Clinton. An eloquent and graphic description is given of tlie 
country, its topographical features and scenerj^, particularly of the Kamloop, 
Xicola, and Ghanaian districts. Indeed, I might give volumes of descrip- 
tion from the hundreds of VTiters on the subject, every one of whom has 
something to say of the country that he has either seen or lieard of. I 
have scarcely space in this volume for reference even, and therefore ■will con- 
dense as much as possible, and omit all but the more important. On general 
features and climate, see further, Lanyevins Kept., 49-4; Cornwallis' Xew El 
Dorado, 27, 36, 113; Macfies V. I. and B. C, chap, ii.; De Smet, Miss, de 
VOr., 144, where an account is given of the twelve voyageurs swallowed in 
the Dalles des Morts in 183S; Oreenhow's Or. and Cal., 27-9; ButUrs Xorlk 
Land, 103; Fra-tei-'s 2d Jour., MS., 3; Uinfrevilles H. B., passim; Cla<lman ia 
House Com. Bept., 1857, 390-2; Chicago Acad. Sri., i, 61-78, more especially 
with reference to the geology of the Mackenzie River; Mines' Or. and its 
Instil., 7, n.ni.\ nines' Ej'. to Or., chap, xvi; Dod;/es' Plains, passim; MncdonakVs 
B. C, chap, i.-iii.; ^16sara/>a, chap, iii., on Dakota- Taylor s NorUnoe-st Am 



71 OCCUPATION OF THE DO^IAi:^. 

MS., 47, 65; Niles' Eefjlstei; xv-i. 235; Dalles Monnfaineer, April 4, 1808; Mac- 
kenzie's Hist. ToTpog., 314-15; Coxs Adv., ii. 3G0-92, about New Caledonia; 
Tlioiiitons Or., i. chap, xix; Parhers Tour, chap. i. ; MaUe-Brun, Precis de 
Geog., vi. 310-14, compiled from Vancouver, Lewis and Clarke, and others* 
liidMrds V. I. Pilot, 1-255; Findlays Direct. K. W. Am., 392-436; Imrays 
Sailing Direct. N. W. Am., 233-45, 261-312, 357-60; Boioes Colon. Emp., i. 
117-29, 134-7; Tolmies Puget Sound, MS., 13-14, on Committee's Punch Bowl. 
Burnett in his i?eco^., MS., i. 115—16, tells about one Black Harris, a trapper, 
who claimed to have discovered a petrified forest in the Rocky Llountains, on 
first coming in sight of which ha had supposed it a beautiful grove of gum 
timber, ' and so sudden had been tlie petrification that the green l3aves were 
all petrified, and tlie very birds that were there singing in the grove were 
also petrified in the act of singing, because their mouths were still open in 
the petrified state.' Black Harris must have been reading the Arabian 
jVights; but stranger than the story of the forest is the fact that so sensible a 
man as Governor Burnett should half believe it. The ignorance of politicans 
concerning this country is painfully apparent, when we see congressman like 
Mr Baylies as late as 1826, men who claimed knowledge sufiiciently extra- 
ordinary and accurate to warrant a printed communication of the same to 
congress, coolly asserting the existence of five establishments subordinate to 
Astoria, one ' at the mouth of Lewis River, one at Lauton, a third on the 
Columbia, six hundred miles from the ocean at the confluence of the Wantana 
[sic] River, a fourth on the east fork of Lewis River, and the fifth on the 
Multnomah.' Lewis and Clarke were not favorably imj)ressed with the 
country. It was a dreary time they had of it. At the mouth of the Colum- 
bia they saw little land that they tliought fit for cultivation, and the account 
they gave was such that, for twenty j'ears after their visit, Oregon was re- 
garded an almost desert region fit only for fur-bearing animals and hungry 
savages. So says Jesse Applegate in Saztons Or. Ter., MS., 142. Con- 
tinuing our lists of references there ij Francldre's I<ar., 229, on the Columbia 
region; Victor's Oregon, one of the best worko extant for general descrip- 
tion; TownseniVs Nar., 67, who says of the Wind River INIountains: 'This 
chain gives rise to the sources of the Missouri, the Colorado of the west, and 
Lewis River of the Columbia, and is the highest land on the continent of 
North America,' Avhich last asserUon he was somewhat premature in making, 
as he had not measured all the elevations; IT. S. Ev. H. B. Co. Claims, 35-45, 
G7, on the soil of Idaho; Fremont's Ex., 274r-6; Doicglas' Private Papers, MS., 
ser. i. 8-27, 73, for scenery on the Columbia and Cowlitz; Poss' Fur Hunters, 
i. 34, 70, 358, ii. 80-3, 360, for Okanagan, Grand Conte, Falls of the Colum- 
bia, and New Caledonia; Simpsons Journey, i. 150-5 et seq., et passim; 
Horoard and Burnett's Direct., 1803, 192-3; Dawson on Mines, 1-3; Overland 
from Minnesota to Eraser River, passim; Harnett's Lect., 42-5; Churchill and 
Coopers B. C, 4; Sehoyn's Geol. Sur. Rept., passim; Comptons Ah. B. C, 
LIS., 1-3; De Groot's B. C, 6, 8; Canada Hand Booh, 52; Johj's Rept. on For- 
estry in Ag. Rept., 1877, 1-20; Waddingtons Overland Route, 15; Rawlings' 
North Am., chap, viii., ix.; McLellans Golden State, Go2; Johnson's Very Far 
West, 94; Palmers Korth Bentinch Route, passim, on Williams Lake and Cari- 
boo; Tsbister's Proposal, passim; Hist. Mag., March 18G3; Land and Worlcs> 






WRITERS CN THE NATIVES 75 

Rep., 1865; Jour, and Sess. Papers, B. C, 1873-4; Mallartdaincs First Vic. 
Direct., 18; Nevada Jour., June 11, 1858; Harmons Jour., i>assim; Dumis 
Or., passim; Bemy and Brenshky, Jour., ii. 509; Buljiiiclis Or., 156; Win- 
throps Canoe Jour., 234; Stuarfu Montana. 89-92; W. McD. Dawson, iu 
House Com. BepL, H. B. Co., 1857, 339-402; Wilkes Nar. U S. Expl. Ex., 
iv., passim; McTarisIi's Dep., passim; liicltardsons Polar Reyions, 219-97; 
Hoopers Tents of (he Twiki, 309-86, where is an excellent aescription of the 
aurora borealis; Grafs Or., 610-19; Lee ami Frost's Or., 81-95, 196-203; Fos- 
ters Missi. Valley, 36, 180, 197-9, 252, 257. 

In relation to the policy of the European fur-traders, settlers, and mission- 
aries, besides the authorities already quoted, I would mention Roberts' Rec, 
MS., 14; Brit- Col. Sketc/tes, MS., 30; Comptons Forts, MS., iiassim; Tod's 
New Caledonia, MS., 24-6, 29-34; Hancock's T'drteen Years, MS., 359-60, 
Chinook jargon; McKat/s Rec, MS., 17-18; Dean's V. I., MS., 22-4; Dou(f- 
las' Pr irate Papers, MS., ser i., 33-4, 55-6, 83; Voweil's Minimj Dtst., MS., 
8-11. Xobili, in De 8 met. Miss, de I'Or., 153; Pub. Accts. Canada, iii. 43; 
payments to natives B C , 1876, House of Commons Rept., H. B. Co., 1857, 
363-7; Anderson, in Hist, Mag., vii. 76; census carriers and remarks on 
decrease, U. S. Ind. Affairs Rept., 1869, 533-4, 558-60; Overland Monthly, ii. 
206-7; Seemann's Voy. Herald, i. 104-6; Canada Year-Book, 1878, 44; 
Rept. Dept. Int., 1875, xlvi. 44-6; Indian reservations, Columbia, Mission, 
various reports; Kirchhoff, Reiscbilder, ii. 81; B. C, Journal and Sess. Pap., 
1, 1874, passim, and Rept. 1875, 673; 25th Concj. 3d Sess., House Com. Rept. 
101, 41; Fitzgerald's H. B. Co., chap, vii.; Douglas' Addresses and Mem., 
68; Armstrong's Or., 25-6; U. S. Statutes at Large, passim; Shasta Courier, 
Dec. 24, 1864; Ishlster, in House Com. Rept., H. B. Co., 1857, 123; McKin- 
lay's Nar., MS., 13-14; Simpsons Nar., i. 210; Alleiis Cont., ilS., 20; Foji, 
Simpson Journcd, MS., 11; Sproat's Scenes, passim; Simm,ons, in W. S. Ev. 
H. B. Co. Claims, 134. 

As to original populations in these parts, Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour 
in their report of the 26th of October, 1845, give the census of the tribes in- 
habiting the Oregon Territory between the forty-second and fifty-fourth par- 
allels and west of the Rocky Mountains at 86,947. This census was niade up 
from the trading-lists of the several stations, and from other good authority. 
Of the number named, 11,079 were arrived at by estimate, and 75,868 by ac- 
curate census. The last named consisted of 33,956 males, 35,182 females, 
1,584 children under twelve, and 5,146 slaves. 

Lord, B. C. Naturalist, ii. 226, estimates the native population of Van- 
couver Island and British Columbia in 1860 at 30,000. In the United States 
the numbers have fallen from 2,000,000 to 300,000. Douglas, Private Papers, 
MS., ser. ii., 7-33, gives census tables of native British Columbia populations 
of the several districts in columns showmg heatls of families, women, canoes, 
guns, etc., most of which arc for the years 1838-9. These statistics were 
found very useful to the Company in its commercial operations. Kane, Wan- 
derings of an Artist, also gives tables of population, all which are contra- 
dictory and unsatisfactory. 

Aboriginal British Columbia, by P. N Compton, is a manuscript of 120 
pages, filled with interesting and valuable detail concerning the geography. 



73 0CCUPATI0:^7 OF TME DOMAIX. 

natural wealth, and native inhabitants of the country. Most of it is the re- 
sult of personal observation. The style is j)lain, simple, and practical, com- 
mon sense characterizing every page. It is probably the most complete work 
«xtant on the aborigines, particular attention being given as well to their 
fisheries, game, food, and commerce as to their character, customs, and lan- 
guages. Not the least interesting part of the work is a division on the natural 
history of this region, devoted chiefly to the bear tribe. 

For fort-dwellers, settlers, and missionary stations I would refer more 
especially to McLoughlins Private Papers, MS., ser. i. 1; Saxtons Or. Ter., 
^IS., 38; the observations of Wilkes and SimjDson before quoted. Belcher, 
Voy., i. 301, mentions as occupying the Willamette Valley 24 Canatlians, 20 
American stragglers, mostly from California, and ten Methodist clergymen 
aud teachers. The five vessels performing the coast service were the bark 
Columbia, 310 tons, 6 guns, and 24 men; the bark Vancouver, 324 tons, 6 
guns, and 24 men; ship Nereid, 283 tons, 10 guns, and 26 men; schooner 
Cadboro, 71 tons, 4 guns, and 12 men; and steamer Beaver, 109 tons, 5 guns, 
and 26 men. See also House Commons Returns to Three Addresses, 7; McKaifs 
Pec, MS., 2; Finlaysons V. I. and N. C, MS., 90-1; Tolmie's Hist. Ptujet 
Sound, MS., 59-60; 24th Cong. 1st Sess., Setiate Doc. 262, 27-30, iii.; Evans 
Hist. Or., MS., xxi. 

McKinlay states, Narrative, MS., 13-15, that Wanquille River was 
named after the Indian chief Wanquille, and Nicola Lake after the chief of 
the Okanagans who lived there. McLeod, in McDonald's Jour., 113, states 
that Tete Jaune Cache at Yellowhead or Leather Pass derived its name 
from the fact that the Hudson's Bay Company, requiring large quantities 
of leather for their carrying service in the Columbia, Thompson River, and 
New Caledonia districts, brought from the eastern side by this pass dressed 
moose and deer skins which were here cached for convenience. Two miles 
below Fort Vancouver the country was called Cox's Plain, ' from Old Cox, 
the H. B. Co. swineherd, who had his residence there among the oaks,' 
as mentioned in a former volume. Hines, Ex. Or., says that ten miles south- 
west of Corvallis rises the most beautiful mountain of the Coast Range, 
Mary's Peak. Among a party travelling in that vicinity in early times was 
Mary, an Indian woman, the wife of a white man. In crossing a river here- 
about, her mule threw her, and she narrowly escaped drowning; in compen- 
sation for which disaster both river and mountain were honored by her name. 
Indian tradition says that the falls at the Dalles were once so great that fish 
could not scale them; also that from Swalalahhost Mountain south-east of 
Young Bay, thunder and smoke once issued; also that the waters at the Cas- 
cades on the Columbia once flowed smoothly and without obstacle beneath 
lines of projecting rocks until they fell; ever since which time the water has 
stumbled over them; also, that the chasm at the Dalles was once arched over, 
and was subsequently rent by an earthquake. Mt St Helens is said to have 
erupted in 1831 The TacuUies called the reindeer of their region hotsee- 
kaya; the Canadian voyageurs, caribou, whence the name of the Cariboo 
country. Many years ago the Beaver Indians inhabited the country round 
the rivers Beaver and Athabasca, formerly Elk, and lakes Deer and WoUas- 
ton. Then came the Knisteneaux, the most warlike and powerful people in 



NO:,IENCLATURE. 77 

all these parts, and drove the Beavers, together with their neighbors the 
Slaves, down the Athabasca River and beyond the Athabasca Lake, once 
called Lake of the Hills. Thence the Slaves tied down the Slave River to 
Slave Lake, tlius giving these two bodies of water their name. The Beavers 
turned into Peace River, where, upon a pouit not far distant from its mouth, 
they lialted and made terms with their pursuers, and made this point their 
boundary, from which circumstance the place was called Peace Point, and 
the river Unjigah or Peace River. 



CHAPTER lY. 

CAMOSUN AND ESQUIMALT. 

1842. 

Necessities of a Northern Metropolitan Post — Encroachments of Set- 
tlers ON the Columbia — The Dividing Line — Growing Importance 
of Agriculture — The Question of Locality — A Northern Rendez- 
vous FOR Whalers — The Southern End of Vancouver Island — Its 
Advantageous Position— Douglas Surveys the Harbors — Camosun 
and Esquimalt Compared — Report of Douglas. 

Several causes united at this juncture to render 
necessary the building of a metropolitan post some- 
where to the northward. 

When John McLoughlin came to Astoria in 1824, 
he saw at once that the mouth of the Columbia was 
not the proper place for the chief factory, or general 
distributing depot of his company on the Northwest 
Coast. Here as elsewhere the adventurers of Eng- 
land trading into Hudson Bay must have absolute 
control of the country, its lands and waters, its forests 
and prairies, its aborigines and its wild beasts. It 
must be all or nothing. Competition might be en- 
dured along the seaboard where the savages were 
blood-thirsty and jealous, and where the silent sailing 
of the sliips neither disturbed the game nor mate- 
rially changed the relative attitude of the inhabitants. 
Astoria might be the best location for a fortress in 
repelling foreign invasion, but there was something 
more to be feared than foreign invasion. In fact, the 
thought of forcible entry from the sea in such numbers 
as to do much injury gave little concern. Game must 
be preserved and the native hunters controlled. This 

178; 



I 



QUARRELS OV THE FUR-TRADERS. 79 

could be done only by keeping others away; all others 
except members of the monopoly; for their own coun- 
trymen, Lno'lish, Scotch, and Irish, as we have often 
observed, were as bitterly detested as opponents as 
were the E-ussians or Americans — instance the long 
and bitter rivalry of the Northwest Company, culmi- 
nating in the bloody fueds of Ked River. ^ 

^ Fiilly to realize the extent to which this brotherly hate was carried, 
one shoi'.hl have been present at a meet'ng of the cluns at York Factory 
or Fort William ijiimeuiatcly after the coalition. Before me is a viviiL 
r.ccount of one such meeting, early in the summer of 11:22, at the former 
post, for which I am indebted, among other kindnesses, to Mr John Tod. The 
bitterness of the Northwesters was somewhat intensified because of their sup- 
posed defeat, though, as a matter of fact, they were less defeated than their 
opponents. The loss of their name, and the scattering of the hitherto proud 
; nd powerful IMontreal associates, gave the retainers of tlie old chartered com- 
pany an opportunity to assume siiperiority, of .which they did not hesitate to 
make avail. A dinner at York Factory in tliose days was closel}'^ akin to a 
tragedy. There were the haughty Ki^;hlandors of the Northwest Company, 
and the equally independent servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, stalking 
the sombre halls of the dilapidated fortress, and glaring deadly scorn from 
under shaggy eyebrows as paths met. Company colors were still bravely 
Haunted, the former arrayed in gray, the latter in blue. At the sounding of 
l!ie bell, seventy or eighty of these two kindred souls marched promiscuously 
i:ito tlie dining-hall and stood along the walls in sullen silence, jealously 
v.atching colors in the appointments of place and precedence. But ' that crafty 
fox, Sir George Simpson,' as my friend of the grays calls him, was happy with 
his small talk and fliplomacy, and presently the x>arty M-as seated. Brought 
thus into yet nearer and more nervous conjunction, it was interesting to see 
them handling the knives intended for cutting their meat, but seemingly it 
would have given greater satisfaction to have applied them to the throat of 
their vis-d-vis. There was blind McDonnel savagely blinking at his enemy of 
k'wan River, Chief Factor Kennedy, whom he had fought with naked sword 
within these three months, and who still carried marks of the encounter upon 
his face. 'I diall never forget the looks of scorn and defiance,' says my 
friend, ' as their eyes met. The Highlander's nostrils expanded; he snorted, 
cfpiirted, and siiat, while the other looked all that, and more. ' At either end 
of the tal)le sat the respective chiefs of the lately opposing companies, Sir 
frcorge Simpson and Simon McGillivray, who interposetl wine and good cheer 
between the would-be combatants with such polislied stratagem as to save 
the dining-hall the scene of open hostilities. Indeed, under the Hudson's 
Bay governor preceding Simpson, the bluff and rugged Williams, whose 
v.llimate appeal in matters of dispute was alwaj-s war, the coalition would 
scarcely have been achieved. 'Immediately ou the right of McGilli\Tay,' 
continues th.e gray, speaking of this special occasion, ' sat tliat llexible char- 
acter, Mcintosh, his ever-shifting countenance and restless black eye indicat- 
ing that nature had designed him for the harbinger of plots, treasons, and 
stratagems. I allude to the same who, some years befoie, in Peace River, 
tried liard to poison poor litLle Yule, but could not succceil, for so iuvuhiera- 
ble liad the integuments of the hitter's stomach become by long acquaintance 
with the tour;h iare of that inhospitable step-moth.er, New Cale^'.onia, that the 
dial)olical attempt altogether faded. Lirectly in front of Mcintosh sat his 
gallant enemy of the precetling winter, the pompous but good-natured Jolm 
Clark, with neckerchief and shirt-collar always up to his ears, and his head 
above the level of ordinary men. ' I may remark that the two leaders, lilclntosh 



so CAMOSLTN" AND ESQUIMxiLT. "" 

But to protect the dusky children of their adoption, 
to watch white interlopers, to prevent the too rapid 
slaughter of fur-bearing animals, and to delay settle- 
ment, a location more central than the seaboard was 
deemed advisable. Hence head-quarters had been 
removed up the river, near the head of ocean naviga- 
tion, and near the mouth of a large river flowing in 
through the fertile Valley Willamette, from far to 
the southward. The northern bank of the Columbia 
had been chosen, that should this stream prove event- 
ually the boundary line between British and American 
Pacific domain, as was then thought probable, the 
chief post of the company might still be found planted 
within British possessions. 

In 1824 agriculture also began to assume impor- 
tance in fur-trading circles. The subordinate estab- 
lishments, of which there were a score or so on the 
Pacific slope, needed supplies. The servants of the 
company were no longer satisfied to trust entirely for 
food to the game which they might kill or purchase. 
Some of the interior forts might, it is true, and did, 
cultivate vegetable patches, and Colville raised no in- 
considerable quantities of grain and live-stock. But 
every locality was not suited to growing grain; further- 
more, mills were necessary, and the more the occu- 
pants of the several posts cumbered themselves with 
the paraphernalia of civilized life, the more their traffic 
was impeded. But the central establishment might 
very properly and profitably turn some attention to 
agriculture, and while securing land to themselves 
prevent its falling into the hands of others. It was 

and Clark, each on his respective side, were for several years close neighbors, 
and constituted the advance guard of that fierce rivalry which so long kept 
the fur-traders in a turmoil. It was only within the past six months that after 
a long day's march, side by side on snow-shoes, they had agreed to settle a 
dispute by combat; and across the blazing camp-fire that night lively pistol- 
lings began, which were unfortunately interfered with by their companions. 
These festive occasions, however, greatly assisted in healing personal feuds, 
which could not long continue after their pecuniary mte rests became one; for 
before this present York Factory feast is over wc see McVicor taking wine 
with his late jailer who had burned brimstone and phosphorus in his cell, 
thus giving him a somev/hat unpalatable foretaste of what might be his fate 
hereafter. 



CHANGE OF LOCALITY FOR IIEAD-QUARTEIIS. 8] 

wise policy on the part of McLoughlin and his asso^ 
eiates to move their Pacific head-quarters from Astoria ; 
and all things considered, the site of Fort Vancouver 
Avas as well chosen as was then possible. 

And now in 1843 a second move seemed no less 
necessary than had the first in 1824. The ownership 
of the territory was still in dispute. Settlers from 
the United States and elsewhere w^ere coming in, and 
tlie land could no longer be kept wholly as a game 
preserve. The representatives of two powerful nations 
occupied in common by agreement. In the very nature 
( F things, this partnership must be dissolved. In sen- 
timent and in policy the subjects and citizens of the 
two powers were to some extent antagonistic. Still 
more were the private interests of the fur company, 
who, down to near the present time, had singly domi- 
n.ated this common territory, oppugnant to the in- 
terests of the iflcoming agriculturists. Some day, and 
that not far distant, either with war or without war, 
there would be drawn the dividing line; and that 
line it was now certain would not be south of the 
Columbia, though it was possible the lower Columbia 
niiglit be upon that line. 

But in any event, whether the territor}" was divided 
soon or late, whether the fortj'-sixth or the forty-ninth 
parallel should separate the ownership of the two 
nations, it was no less important that the head- 
quarters of the fur company should be moved. It 
was impossible to prevent settlement; it was impos- 
sible to treat settlers as enemies, for the officers and 
servants of the Hudson's Bay Company were, as a 
rule, just and humane men. Nor was it any the less 
impossible to conduct a successful peltry business in 
the face of increasing settlement. For several years 
past tliese ideas had been patent in the minds of all 
who thought upon the subject. 

Having determined upon the necessity of a move, 
the next consideration was the selection of a site. 

ilisT. Brit. Col. 6 



82 CAMOSUN AND ESQUIMALT. 

The nearest northern post was Nisqually. Too near, 
in fact, for already the agriculturists were upon them. 
There w^ere the Cowlitz farms; and round Fort Nis- 
qually the Puget Sound Agricultural Company was 
rapidly laying wide tracts under contribution. But 
this was not the worst of it. The agricultural im- 
provements on Cowlitz Plains and round Nisqually 
belonged to the Puget Sound Company, which be- 
longed to the Hudson's Bay Company. All this could 
be easily controlled; and the agricultural interest 
might indeed have been subordinated to the fur traffic 
to the benefit of both. For it need not necessarily 
follow that the principal post of supply should be in 
the centre of a fur-bearing region. But it was better 
it should be back of settlement; and settlement in 
earnest had already set in between the Columbia and 
Puget Sound. Then Nisqually, while distant from 
the northern posts, w^as likewise distani? from the sea; 
and too much threading of inlets would more than 
offset any other advantages Puget Sound might ofPer. 
But most of all to be considered, Nisqually might be 
on the southern side of the line when the national 
partition should be made, and it was surely desirable 
that any further improvements made by the British 
fur company should be on British territory. 

Fort Langley might next be considered. The 
Fraser was the next largest river on the coast after 
the Columbia, and on it stood Langley, as Vancouver 
stood on the Columbia. The Fraser could offer as 
abundant a supply of salmon as the Columbia, and the 
entrance was as safe. The Fraser should now become 
the natural route to New Caledonia, and Langley was 
well situated to supply all the interior posts. But 
might not some point more accessible to the sea be 
chosen which would offer all the other advantages of 
Langley as well? The dividing line once determined 
there would be little fear of present inroads of set- 
tlers beyond it; and if in time a British colon}^ within 
strictly British territory and under British rule should 



1 



WHALERS' RENDEZVOUS. 83 

be established on the Pacific coast, might not the 
fur company's site be the best for a colonial capital 
as otherwise? In the ordinary course of things, the 
business of wild-beast raising and skinning must de- 
cline; and when it does, and agriculturists take the 
place of savages, it would be as well for the proprie- 
torship of the metropolis of the new empire to vest in 
the company as in another. 

Yet another consideration might be regarded. It 
so happened that with the decline of the fur- trade 
upon the Xorthwest Coast, the whaling interest had 
assumed larger proportions. Since 1790 there had 
been occasional vessels off the shore of California 
catching whales. Gradually the number of these ves- 
sels increased, a large proportion of them now hailing 
from New England ports, until the present century 
was wellnigh two thirds gone, when in the north 
Pacific this fishery was at its height. 

Meanwhile San Francisco Bay had its Whalers' 
Harbor, now Sauzalito, and large fishing fleets con- 
gregated at Honolulu.^ And but for the narrow policy 
of tlie Mexican Government and the apathy of the 
people of California, the harbor of San Francisco 
would have been the rendezvous of Pacific whalers 
during the most important half-century of their exist- 
ence. For, though the Hawaiian Islands, tying as 
they did in the very track between the northern and 
southern fisheries, were always easy of access by 
reason of the trade winds, nature offered far more 
bounteous supplies for the refreshing and refitting 
of vessels upon the mainland than at the Islands. 
Besides a plentiful supply of timber and resin which 
California oflercd for ship-building, hemp grew spon- 
taneously, and beef might be had for a trifle. 

For several years prior to active operations in that 
quarter, the southern end of Vancouver Island had 

2 In 1823, three years after the arrival at the Hawaiian Islands of the first 
missionaries, fifty or sixty whalers might be seen at one time at Honolulu, 
ami for twenty years thereafter the annual arrival at this ijort averaged not 
less than sixty sail. See Jarven' Hawaiian Islands, 301. 



84 CAMOSim AND ESQUIMALT. 

been thought of and talked of as a locahty suitable 
for an establishment. It was indeed better adapted 
for the site of a magnificent city, than that of a fur- 
trading fort. It was near the ocean, and yet protected 
from it. It was on the broad highway between the 
islands and shores of the Pacific, and a continental 
interior equal to the whole of Mexico. It was at the 
cross-roads of waters; to the west led Fuca Strait, to 
the south Admiralty Inlet, and to the north the Gulf 
of Georgia. Huge islands were back of it, and a huge 
continent beside it. And the fact that as a place alone 
whereat to buy furs it was not as desirable as some 
others, shows that in the minds of the shrewd traders 
and factors of the great company who saw and seized 
this opportunity, it was something more than a mere 
trading-station. 

The steamer Beaver had not been on duty in these 
waters more than a year before she was prying into 
the mysteries cf Royal Harbor. For in the Fort 
Simpson journal under date 10th August 1837, I 
find written: "On his way to the southward Captain 
McNeill explored the south end of Vancouver Island, 
and found an excellent harbor and a fine open country 
along the sea-shore apparently well adapted for both 
tillage and pasturage, but saw no river sufficiently 
extensive for mills." ^ This clearly shows what was 
wanted ; not only a fort site but a mill site ; that is to 
say, something more than a common trading-post. 

As Governor Simpson passed the place by the 
same conveyance on his way from Fort Vancouver to 
the northern posts in September 1841, he remarked: 
"The neighboring country, comprising the southern 
end of Vancouver's Island, is w^ell adapted for culti- 
vation, for, in addition to a tolerable soil and a mod- 
erate climate, it possesses excellent harbours, and 
abundance of timber. It will doubtless become, in 

^ The fact that this survey of Esquimalt and Victoria harbors by McNeill 
was recorded in the journal of so distant a post as that of Fort Simpson, shows 
that it was then regarded as a matter of no small importance to the company, 
and one generally speculated upon by the officers. 



GEORGE Si:^irSON. 85 

time, the most valuable section of the whole coast 
above California."'^ 

Simpson had seen this island twenty-three years 
before, immediately after his overland journey and 
passage down Fraser River in 1828;^ but having no 
need to think much about it at tliat time, Fort Van- 
couver filling every requirement, he passed it by with- 
out special comment. But now, and later, during this 
visit of 1841, we find his mind dwelling upon the 
subject, and connecting it with that of a whaling- 
station within British Pacific territory, which he 
believed might be made at once attractive to ship- 
masters and profitable to his company. Surely north- 
ern forests were superior to southern; northern harbors 
equally safe, and as whaling operations worked north- 
ward, a northern rendezvous might be more convenient. 
As for supplies, if the Hudson's Bay Company could 
furnish the Russians in America on terms advan- 
tageous to both parties, as they were now satisfied 
they could, surely they might supply the whaling 
fleets of those waters.^ 

When Simpson reached England, being while here 
en route overland round the world, he laid the matter 
of a new Pacific post before the London directors. 
Ordinarily in planting a new establishment no such 
formality was deemed necessary. But, involving as it 
did an entire change of base in operations here, a vir- 

* Simpson's Joiiniei/, i. 182. 

^George Simpson was chief officer in America, and governor of the Hud- 
son's Bay territories for an iiniuterriipted term of thirty-seven years. He 
had no fixed residence ; part of the time he spent at Red River, part in 
Oregon, part in Athabasca, and part in Canada. Througliout that vast com- 
mercial empire as veil in Rupert Land as in the nortli-t\'est territories, his 
autliority was absolute, his will unquestioned exce^jt by the council or the 
company. And during all tliis time, if we may believe his own statement, it 
was never questioned. A very able man of large physique, he was a power 
tliroughout the laud. 

•^Tlie governor s logic was sound enough, but it is not so easy to draw 
traffic from its accustomed channels. Vancouver Island never was greatly 
ujed l>y whalers. In Xik-s' EeijiMcr, Ixx. 341, mention is made of four Amer- 
ican whaling vessels that wintered there in 1S45-G, one of which was the 
Morri'<on of Massachusetts, and one the Lnirrie, of Connecticut. Six sailors 
deserting from these ships with a stolen boat attempted to laud, but were 
opposed by the natives; and so, driven to sea in a storm, three of them 
pcrishccl. 



86 CMIOSUN AND ESQUIMALT. 

tual abandonment of the Columbia, and the beginning 
of a new regime under new conditions, it was deemed 
desirable to have the advice and sanction of the mag- 
nates of the corporation, before proceeding with wdiat 
were now, in the minds of the managers, tolerably 
well determined plans. 

The fact is there could not be in this association 
two opinions in regard to this measure. A move was 



K^^fl 




Camosun and Vicinity. 

inevitable. The life of a fur-trader or factor was one 
perpetual lesson in observation. To study well the 
country, its configuration and contents, was their 
daily occupation. Hence the location of the chief city 
of British Columbia was not, as has been so many 
times the case in city-building, the result of accident. 
The very best place that the very best men, after due 
deliberation and examination, could find, was chosen, 
and in the enjoyment of the rep,;ilts of this sound 



1 

J 



DOUGLAS' SURVEY. 87 

judgment their successors and descendants forever 
may call them blessed. 

Those to whom more immediate thanks are due are 
James Douglas, John McLoug-hlin, Roderick Fin- 
layson, John Work, Anderson, Tolmie, and McNeill. 
Governor Simpson and the London management were 
only secondary in their influence as to location. It 
was the chief factors and chief traders of the day 
who really determined matters. 

And first among these we maj^ place James Doug- 
las. McLoughlin was now in his decline. His retire 
ment was already determined upon. He had been 
the central figure in Northw^est Coast affairs for a 
period of eighteen years. A new sun was now aris- 
ing, which for the next score of j^ears was to shine in 
the north as had the other in the south. 

In earl}^ summer 1842, Douglas made a careful 
preliminary survey of the southern end of Vancouver 
Island, more particularly of the region round what is 
now called Royal Bay,'^ it being by this time well un- 
derstood that tliere was to be found the most suitable 
available spot on all the Northwest Coast. 

At a place called by the natives Camosun,^ or Ca- 

' At the extreme south-easter!i end of Vancouver Island is a large open 
bay called Royal Bay, directly back of wliich is Esquimalt Harbor, some 
three miles east of which is Victoria Harbor. That part of Royal Bay lead- 
ing more directly into Esquimalt Harbor, and beginning at Albert Head, is 
called Royal Roads. Vessels may there anchor in tenor twelve fathoms, safe 
from all winds save those from the east or south-east. E. quimalt Harbor may 
be entered at all times, and there vessels of any size find safe ancliorage. 
Victoria Harbor, entereil between points McLoughlin aud Ogden, b}' reason 
of the sunken rocks which extend a mile in either direction, from the bare, 
fiat projection situated midway between the two harbors, and known as Sailor 
or ^lacaulay point, is regarded as dangerous of entrance in bad weather. 
The channel is so tortvious that long vessels often run aground. ' It appears 
not a little remarkable,' says Imray, West Coiust of North America, 239, ' that 
witli the excellent liarbor of Es<iuimalt within two miles, Victoria should 
have been continued as the commercial port of a rising colony.' See also 
Kane's Wanderiiujs, 208, anA SveiiiaDUt Voij. Herald, i. 101. 

•* So written by Finlaysou, ami by Douglas, Camosack. I give the prefer- 
ence to the former, because though Finlayson may not on all occasions have 
been as close an observer as Douglas, the visits of observatio'.i of the latter 
were transient, and in some degree necessarily superficial, while the former 
was broujiht immediately into close and continued relationship with the 
natives, where he was obliged to know something of their language, and where 
he assuredly had the opportunity to obtain the most correct pronunciation of 
so important a word. Lieutenant Vavasour, in March 18-11), Hoiideof Coinmom 



83 CAMOSUN AND EoQUi:MALT. 

mosack, siofiiifviiiof the rush of waters, such as occurred 
at the gorge, Douglas found an open space some six 
miles square in area, consisting of a range of plains 
with timber convenient, and possibly water-power for 
mills on Camosun Canal, notwithstanding IMcjSTeill 
had reported unfavorably in regard to mill sites. 

I will permit Douglas to make his own report. 
" Camosack is a pleasant and convenient site for the 
establishment, within fifty yards of tlie anchorage, on 
the border of a large tract of clear land which extends 
eastward to Point Gonzalo at the south-east ex- 
tremity of the island, and about six miles interiorly, 
being the most picturesque and decidedly the most 
valuable part of the island that we had the good for- 
tune to discover. More tlian two thirds of this sec- 
tion consists of prairie land, and may be converted 
either to purposes of tillage or pasture, for which I 
have seen no part of the Indian country better 
adapted; the rest of it, with the exception of the 
ponds of water, is covered with valuable oak and pine 
timber. I observed, generally speaking, but two 
marked varieties of soil on the prairies; that of the 
best land is of a dark vegetable mould, varying from 
nine to fourteen inches in depth, overlaying a sub- 
stratum of grayish clayey loam, which j)roduces the 
rankest growth of native plants that I have seen in 
America. The other variety is of inferior value, and 
to judge from the less vigorous appearance of the 
vegetation upon it, naturally more unproductive. 
Both kinds, however, produce abundance of grass, 
and several varieties of red clover grow on the rich 
moist bottoms. In two, particularly, we saw several 
acres of clover growing with a luxuriance and a com- 
pactness more resembling the close sward of a well- 
managed lea than the produce of an uncultivated 
waste. Being pretty well assured of the capabilities 
of the soil as respects the purposes of agriculture, the 

Returns to Three Addresses, 10, writes the word Cammusan, which certainly 
leans toward Finlaysou's orthography. Bolduc says Skagits called tlie south- 
ern end of Vancouver Island Ranioon. Z>e Smet's Or. Miss., 61. 



DOUCiLAS' KEPORT. 89 

climate being also mild and pleasant, we ought to ha 
able to grow every kind of grain raised in England. 
On this point, however, we cannot conficlently speak 
until we have tried the experiment and tested the cli- 
mate, as there may exist local influences destructive of 
the husbandman's hopes, which cannot be discovered 
by other means. As, for instance, it is Avell known that 
the damp fogs which daily spread over the shores of 
Upper California blight the crops and greatly de- 
teriorate the wheat grown near the sea-coast in that 
country. I am not aware that any such efFect is ever 
felt in the temperate climate of Britain, nearly con- 
responding in its insular situation and geographical 
position with Vancouver Island, and I hope that the 
latter will also enjoy an exemption from an evil at once 
disastrous and irremediable. We are certain that 
potatoes thrive, and grow to a large size, as the Ind- 
ians have many small fields in cultivation which ap- 
pear to repay the labor bestowed upon them, and I 
hope that other crops will do as well. The canal of 
Camosack is nearly six miles long, and its banks are 
M'ell wooded throughout." 

About a league west of Camosun was a spot known 
to the natives as Esquimalt;'' that is to say, 'a i)lace 
for gathering camass,' great quantities of which vege- 
table were found there, where it was now well known 
was a better harbor; indeed, Camosun could scarcely 
be regarded as a suitable rendezvous for whalers; but 
that did not prevent its being a better place for a fort. 

® As usual in such cases, we find both of these names mixed and mutilated in 
a variety of ways by different writers. Thus Clrant, Loud. Gco</. Soc, Jour., 
xxvii. 2/2, and others rci)cating his error, say the natives called Victoria Har- 
bor Tjoniu.^, 'from the name of the tribe which lives there,' Avhich were the 
Son;,'hics, and which name in fact he was endeavoring to pronounce. There is 
' a bay within three miles of Fort Victoria,' say tM'o very intelligent gentlemen 
specially appointed to see and speak correctly. Warre and Vaiyt.'foiir, JtcpL, 
184"), ' ealk'tl Sipiirual by the Indians. ' The native name of Cordoba, the Vic- 
toria Harbor of the Sid/l y Jfexicaiia, Via<je, 38, is given by a Spanish writer 
Chaoliimutupusas. Paul Kane, the artist, WcDiderhi;/-^, 209, writes most of 
the n:imcs in tlie vicinity correctly; but lie peoples tlie Songhie villauc with 
Clallams, a scarcely pardonalde mistake in one studying savages. Douglas 
writes E;quimalt Iswhoymaltli, which orthography, however correct it may 
be, is rather redundant for po])ular use. Tlie French Jesuit, Bolduc, De 
Siiiet'n Or. Jlias., 57-8, calls the 8onghies Isanisks. 



90 CAAiosux a:nd esquimalt. 

Wlien once the shoals and covered rocks were known, 
the channel would be found sufficient for the small 
vessels of the company ; and as for whalers, the other 
harbor was quite near enough for their not always too 
pleasing presence. Little thought was then taken as 
to which should be the great commercial port, or as 
to where should be placed the future great commercial 
city. Even should the station ever assume such pro- 
tensions, Esquimalt would still assuredly be the proper 
place, and Camosun would still be near enough to it. 
For the present, favorable surroundings, good open 
lands, clear fresh water, and a beautiful periscope 
were far weightier considerations than the accessi- 
bility to shipping, which they did not care to have 
too near them. 

In reference to Esquimalt, Douglas says : " Iswhoy- 
malth is one of the best harbors on tlie coast, being 
perfectly safe and of easy access, but in other respects 
it possesses no attraction. Its appearance is strikingly 
unprepossessing, the outline of the country exhibiting 
a confused assemblage of rock and wood. More dis- 
tant appear isolated ridges, tliinly covered with scat- 
tered trees and masses of bare rock ; and the view is 
closed by a range of low mountains, which traverse 
the island at a distance of about twelve miles. The 
shores of the harbor are rugged and precipitous, and 
I did not see one level spot clear of trees of sufficient 
extent to build a large fort upon. There is in fiict but 
little clear land within a quarter of a mile of the harbor, 
and that lies in small patches here and there on the 
declivities and bottoms of the rising ground. At a 
greater distance are two elevated plains on different 
sides of the harbor containing several bottoms of rich 
land, the largest of which does not exceed fifty acres 
of clear space, much broken by masses of limestone 
and granite. Another serious objection to the place 
i» the scarcity of fresh water." ^*^ 

^^CoiTipare further Martins Hudson's Bay, 35-7; Waddlngtons Fraser 
Mines, 13. ' Victoria may be the farm, but Esquimalt will be the trading- 
port.' Seemanns Toy. Herald, i. 101. 



THE MATTER DETERMINED. 



Such report dated the 12th of July, being duly 
made at Fort Vancouver on the return of Douglas, 
after due consideration by the factors and traders there 
assembled, it was determined to open operations at that 
point as early in the following spring as practicable. 



CHAPTER V. 

POUNDING OF FORT CMIOSUN. 
1843. 

Expedition from Fokt Vancouver— Source of Agricultural Supplies — 
The Cowlitz Country — Embark on the ' Beaver' — Visit to the Clal- 
LAMS — Anchor in Camosun Harbor — Beauties of the Surroundings 
— Aboriginal Occupants — Selection of a Site — Two Points Attract 
Attention — Location Settled — The Jesuit, Bolduc — His Confer- 
ence with the Natives — The Fort-builders Begin Operations — 
Portentous Signs — Bolduc Celebrates Mass— He Visits Whidbey 
Island — Douglas Departs for Tako — Abandonment of that Post, 
AND also of Fort McLoughlin — Return of Douglas to Camosun 
with Reenforcements— The Stockade Erected— Arrival of the 
' Cadboro ' — Ross Placed in Command — Departure of Douglas with 
the ' Beaver ' and the ' Cadboro.' 

The expedition for establishing a post on the south- 
ern point of Vancouver Island left Fort Vancouver 
the first day of March 1843.^ It consisted of some 
fifteen men, and was under the command of James 
Douglas.^ It had been determined that the posts of 

^ As to the (late of the first expedition to Royal Bay for the purpose of 
planting an establishment there, and of the beginning of the Fort Victoria 
buildings, there is a multiplicity of statements, although there is not the 
slightest difficulty in reaching the truth, strange as it may appear, if one goes 
to the right place for it. Thus Cooper, Maritime Hatters, M'S., 2, wlio one 
would think should know, says ' the fort was commenced in 1842 and com- 
pleted in 1844,' when in truth the site was no more than selected at the date 
first mentioned, while for nearly ten years after the time last named they were 
adding to the buildings. McKinlay, Narrative, MS. , 7, was quite near it for 
him when he dates the founding 1840. Grant, in London Geog. Soc, Jour., 
xxvii. 272, and Hazlitt, Brit. Col., 157, copying him; Tolmie, Pucjet Sound, 
MS., 19, Finlayson, Hist. V. I., MS., 21, who was there and one of the 
building party, give the date 1843. 

2 Of this expedition, which will be forever interesting and important as the 
beginning of active permanent operations on Vancouver Island, I have two 
accounts, of the highest order of evidence, both narrators being of the party; 
one is the journal of James Douglas, written by himself, and the other a let- 
ter of Bolduc, a Jesuit priest, to Mr Cayenne, published in De SmeVs Or. Miss. 

(92 J 



THE EXPEDITION. 93 

Tako and McLouglilin should bo abandoned, and the 
men there stationed should lend their assistance to 
the builders of the new establishment; hence the small 
number of men brought from Fort Vancouver.^ 

First of all, arrangements must be made for pro- 
visions. Unlike a regular fur-trading fort, the pro- 
posed general depot on Vancouver Island could not, 
in an}' considerable degree, sustain itself by hunting 
and fishing. It was intended at once to pursue agri- 
culture; but there could be but little raised the first 
year, and while the fii'st crops were growing the men 
must eat. Therefore, Nisqually and the Cowlitz 
Plains being of all the Company's farms the most 
productive and accessible, it was determined to draw 
supplies thence. A week was thus occupied in the 
Cowlitz country,* and in the transportation of effects, 
and on the 9th the party reached Nisqually in the 
midst of a heavy fall of snow. There the little black 
/> ec« '67* awaited them ; but it w^as the 13th before all 
their effects were on board ready to start. Embark- 
ing at ten o'clock on that day, and steaming north- 
ward through Puget Sound and Admiralty Inlet, at 
dusk they came to anchor a few miles south of Port 
Townsirnd.^ The water was still; over the sides of 
the vessel fishing tackle was thrown, and soon a plen- 
tiful supply of cod and halibut was secured for the 
next day's dinner. 

Weighing anchor the next morning, they ran into 
Xew Dungeness, and landed for the double purpose 
of notifying the Clallams of their intended occupation 
of Vancouver Island, j^reparatory to opening traffic 
with them, and also to examine the neighborhood as to 

^ 'According to instructions from the governor, Sir George Simpson, the 
trade at Tako and the neighboring inlands was to he carried on by the Heaver 
steamer, as a trading vessel along the coast there.' Finlaysons V. /., MS., 21. 

^Tlie first night, camped at the mouth of the Cowlitz; second night, slept 
below the forks; third night, above the forks; fourth and fifth nights, at 
Cowlitz Farms; sixth and seventh nights, at Mountain Plain; eighth night, 
at north end of Grand Prairie. We may judge somewhat of their occupation 
l>y their movements. Douijl'is' Journal, MS., 120. 

^ ' At a i)l:ice named Points Per<lrix, formed by a projection of the lale 
Whitby.' Bolduc, i:i Dc SmeCa Or. Minn., 55. 



94 FOUXDIXG OF FORT CAMOSUX. 

its resources. There was a plain of 5ome two hundred 
acres, containing chiefly granite bowlders, a stream of 
water, and a large village of the Clallams, who in 
autumn capture large quantities of salmon. In small 
gardens on the plain the natives cultivated potatoes. 
Their observations completed, they crossed Fuca 
Strait to Camosun Bay, and anchored about four 
o'clock just inside the entrance round Shoal Point.^ 

It was indeed primeval in appearance. Before 
them lay a vast ocean-bound body of land upon which 
no white man now stood. Not a human habitation 
was in sight, not a beast, scarcely a bird. Even the 
distant murmur of the voiceless wood was drowned 
by the gentle beating of the surf upon the shore. 

There was something specially charming, bewitching, 
in the place. Though wholly natural, it did not seem 
so. It was not at all like pure art; but it was as 
though nature and art had combined to map and 
make one of the most pleasing prospects in the world. 
So park-like in appearance was the region round and 
back of the harbor, that the European first landing 
would scarcely have manifested surprise had he en- 
countered workmen, who, while subduing that which 
was evil or ungainly, ^^-ere yet subordinating art to 
nature, and strivinof with their artificial chansfes still 
to preserve nature's beauties. The fertile vales, warm 
groves, and grassy slopes of the rolling plateau were 
intersected by serpentme ribbons of glistening water, 
and bound round by wind-chiselled rocks as smooth 
and symmetrical as if placed there by design. These 
gave the ground a substantial air, and a warning to 
the encroachir.g sea, as if progress had specially pre- 
pared the place, and the foundations of civilization were 
there already laid. Never danced clearer, purer water 
in the sunlight than that which rippled in the coves 
and bays around, and the Olympian Heights from this 

^Some say that this expedition first entered Esquimalt Harbor, some 
Cordoba Bay; both are in eiTor. These sliorcs had been previously visited 
often enough to enable them to proceed at once to their objective point. 



VIRaiX WILX)ERNESS. Oo 

stalKlpoiiit, with the ghstening water for a foreground 
and cloud-cut midway above their base, as they often 
are, seemed translated heavenward. N^ever were 
mountains more aptly named than these, thanks to 
the old trinket-huckster, Meares; for if there is any- 
where a spot on which an American Jove might 
fitly hold his court, it is here on these high up- 
lifted hills, their base resting on clouds and their 
white tops bathed in celestial glory. 

The aboriginal occupants of the domain round Ca- 
mosun, by which native appellation we are permitted 
for a time to call what was afterward known as Victoria 
Harbor, were the Sono^hies,^ whose chief villaoe was 
situated on the western side of the channel, on a point 
about one mile from the entrance. At the present time, 
however, they had fortified themselves within stakes 
enclosing an area some one hundred and fifty feet 
square, at the head of the harbor/ through fear of 
the fierce Cowichins, who lived a little north of Eraser 
River, both on the island and on the mainland, and 
who crept stealthily dow^n the strait in their canoes, 
entered villas^es at nio-ht, massacred the men, and car- 
ried the women and children into slavery. 

On the present occasion the Beaver had scarcely 
come to anchor when two canoes were seen, and ac 
the discharge of cannon savages appeared upon the 
l)ank, confusedly moving hither and thither like the 
unearthed inhabitants of a disturbed ant-hill. The 
night passed quietly, and the following morning saw 
the steamer surrounded b}' a swarm of boats. 

Chief now among other considerations was wood 
with which to build the fort, and ground to place it 
on. For the former, early on the morning of the 
loth of March, Douglas set out from the steamer in 
a small boat and began to examine the shore directlj 
north of the anchorage, where he found the trees 
short, crooked, and not at all suitable. On the south 

' S&s Nith^ Races, i. 174-207, 297. 

* Boliluc says ' six miles fro:n the jjort, at tlie extremity of the bay. ' De 
SniH's Or. MUi., 5G. 



96 FOUNDING OF FORT CAMOSUN. 

side the wood was better, and Douglas anticipated 
no difficulty in obtaining sufficient of some kind for 
bis purpose. Small, straight cedar-trees, such as were 
most desirable for pickets, being lirjhter, and of greater 
durability underground than other timber of this 
region, he found it necessary to bring from a distance. 

Meanwliile, never indifferent to food supply, he 
questioned the natives, and learned that pilchard, or 
herring, came in Apr'l, and that salmon ascended Fuca 
Strait in August, when large quantities were taken, 
the supply of the latter continuing until September. 

Where to place the proposed fort was the next 
question. "There are two positions," writes Doug- 
las in his journal under date of 15tli of March, "pos- 
sessing advantages of nearly equal importance, though 
of diflerent kinds. Number one has a good viev/ of 
the harbor, is upon clear ground, and only fifty yards 
from the beach; on the other hand, vessels drawing 
fourteen feet of water cannot come within one hun- 
dred and thirty feet of the shore. We will therefore 
have either to boat cargo off and on, and at a great 
destruction of boats, and at a considerable loss of 
time, or be put to the expense of forming a jetty at a 
great amount of labor. Number two, on the other 
hand, will allow of vessels lying with their sides 
grazing the rocks, which form a natural wharf where- 
on cargo may be conveniently landed from the ship's 
yard, and in that respect would be exceedingly advan- 
tageous; but on the other hand, an intervening point 
intercepts the view, so that the mouth of the port 
cannot be seen from it, an objection of much weight 
in the case of vessels entering and leaving port. 
Another disadvantage is, that the shore is there cov- 
ered by thick woods to the breadth of two hundred 
yards, so that we must either place the fort at that 
distance from the landing-place, or clear away the 
thickets, which would detain us very much in our 
building operations. I will think more on this sab- 
ject before determining the point." 



BOLDUC, THE MISSIONARY. 97 

In all which it is clearly evident the commander's 
mind was dwelling more on proximate facilities than 
on permanent advantages; for had he been aware 
that he was choosing the site of a city, and not merely 
locating a fort, such considerations as a view of the 
entrance or a belt of bushes on the shore would have 
weighed but little. 

AVith the expedition was a Jesuit missionary, J. B. 
Z. Bolduc, who claims to. have bf en the first priest to 
put foot on Vancouver Island ; of the truth of which 
supposition perhaps neither he nor any of those with 
him were the best judges. However this may have 
been, certain it is that Father Bolduc, on this same 
15th of March, landed with swelling breast and head 
erect, as fully bent on business as any there present. 
If we may credit the truth of the good man's state- 
ment, the savages, with their chief, whose name was 
Tsilalthach, at once recognized his apostleship, and 
bowed submissive to that spiritual yoke which they 
hoped would in its own mysterious way add to their 
creature comforts. 

Accompanied by the commander of the expedition 
and the captain of the steamer, the priest directed his 
steps to where the savages had congregated up the 
channel, and was immediately embraced by six hundred 
souls, which number swelled to twelve hundred bcf )re 
his departure. Men, women, and children, all must 
touch the hem of his garment, all must shake hands 
with him, and absorb in their being some of that divine 
afflatus that flows from the Lord's anointed. 

Repairing to the great public house of the village, 
the priest harangued the people, and the chief ha- 
rangued the priest: which was the more interesting 
and instructive discourse I shall not attempt to deter- 
mine. 

"0 man!" cried Bolduc, "red man, blind man, 
beastly man; know you not of a creator, a heaven, 
and a Jiell? I know, and I am come to tell you, the 

UisT. Brit. Col. 7 



98 FOUNDING OF FORT CAMOSUN. 

creator is such and such a character as I shall describe ; 
and he loves and hates such things as I shall tell you 
are right and wrong." 

"All that I know as well as you," returned Tsilal- 
thach. "Another told me ten years ago.^ I used to 
be bad; now I am good." 

Lucky Bolduc ! Lucky Tsilalthach ! How wonderful 
is knowledge, hidden as it is from the wise and prudent, 
but revealed to babes ! 

"You must be baptized," continued Bolduc. 

"Baptize our enemies," said Tsilalthach; "do not 
baptize us; for all the Kwantlums and Cowichins so 
treated died immediately." 

"Then you can never see the master," replied 
Bolduc. 

"Well, baptize, then," cried Tsilalthach; "we have 
soon to die in any event." 

So Bolduc baptized until arrestea by sheer exhaus- 
tion; and the sheep now gathered into the fold were 
ready for the slaughter. 

Next day, the 16th, having determined on a site, 
which was number two of his recorded cogitations, 
Douglas put his men at work squaring timber, and 
six others digging a well. He then explained to the 
natives,^'' now assembled in considerable numbers, that 
he had come to build among them, and to bring them 
arms and implements, clothing and beautiful adorn- 
ments, which they might have for skin? Whereat 
they were greatly pleased, and eagerly pressed their 
assistance upon the fort-builders, who were glad to 
employ them at the rate of one blanket for every forty 
pickets they would bring. ^^ 

The 17th was Friday; was it their lucky or un- 

® Was it another first priest, a swearing sailor, or a supernatural apparition ? 

I'Tlie 'Samose,' he calls them: which is hardly so near 'Soughies' as 
' Camosack ' is to ' Camosun, ' 

1^ 'The pickets were twenty -two feet long and three feet in circumference". 
I also lent them three large axes, one half square head, and ten half-round 
head axes, to be returned hereafter, when they had finished the job.' Dowjlas' 
Journal, MS., 12*-5. 



THE NATIVES. 99 

lucky day ? Was that luminous streak which lingered 
in the heavens after the day went out, shining brightly 
tliere until the moon came up and frightened it away 
— was the sign portentous of good or ill to this begin- 
ning ? And did it speak to the savage or to the civil- 
ized? For five consecutive nights it did not fail to 
make its appearance, and was the wonder of the time.^'" 



Sunday was the 19th, and Bolduc decided on that 
day to celebrate mass. Douglas kindly placed at his 
disposal whatever he should wish from the steamer, 
besides supplying him men to aid him in his holy work. 
A rustic chapel was improvised ; a boat's awning serv- 
ing as canopy, and branches of fir-trees enclosing the 
sides. During the service the rude sanctuary was 
graced with the presence of the commander, and two 
Catholic ladies, by which term the polite Frenchman 
designates the pious half-breed wives of the Canadians. 
No cathedral l3ell was heard that sabbath morning; 
no soft and solemn peal flung back by waving forest 
on Georgia and Fuca straits; and yet the Songhies, 
Clallams, and Cowichins were there, friends and 
bloody enemies, in thick attendance, all anxious for 
heaven after they should have received sufficient of 
some nearer and more present happy sensation. 

The Songhies themselves were soon enlisted in mis- 
sionary service. Bolduc, desirous of carrying the gos- 
pel to Whidbey Island, after purchasing a canoe was 
devoutly paddled thence by Tsilalthach and ten of his 
most efhcient warriors, on the 24th. The captain had 
given him a compass and had told him which way to 
steer, else this man who knew the road to heaven so 
well would have lost his wa}" on a little stretch of 
opaque sea of twenty-seven miles. The first night was 
spent on Lopez Island; the new converts, securing an 
abundance of sea food to gorge themselves withal, did 

^^ Douglas every day made a note of it, placing it ' due south from the 
position we occupied at tlie time of its appearance, and extended from thence 
in a continuous line to the south-west point of the horizon, forming an arc of 
ninety degrees. It diminished gradually toward the south-west horizon.' 
Douglas' Journal, MS., 126. 



100 FOUNDING OF FORT CAMOSUN. 

not find it necessary, at this juncture, to eat the mis- 
sionary. The next day he reached Whidbey Island 
in safety ; and pitching his tent beside the cross planted 
there by Blanchet in 1840, before the sun went down he 
had shaken hands with a file of savages, numbering, with 
those so favored the following day, over one thousand, 
enough to put to blush Ulysses Grant, the greatest of 
American hand-shakers. Signifying his desire for 
something better than a cotton house, two hundred 
Skagits immediately fell to cutting trees, and in two 
days a wooden building twenty-five by twenty-eight 
feet, covered with cedar bark, the interior lined with 
rush mats, stood at his service upon an adjacent hill; 
in return for which the Skagits were taught to sing. 

The 3d of April the good missionary departed from 
these shores, directing his boat back toward Nisqually, 
naively remarking that although the heathen here- 
abouts gladly received the word, he was not sure 
they fully comprehended it; for when he attempted 
to reform their morals they straightway relapsed into 
indifference. 

The beginning of these important operations having 
thus been made, Douglas committed his little force of 
fort-builders to the honorable mercies of the yet un- 
maddened savage, and steamed northward, transacting 
the usual business on the way. 

Proceeding to Fort Tako, he took thence all the 
goods and other articles worth the transportation, and 
placing them with the men on board the vessel, aban- 
doned the place. At Fort Simpson he took on board 
Roderick Finlayson, leaving there another officer in 
his place. Dropping down the Milbank Sound, he 
gathered in the stores and men at Fort McLoughlin, 
and abandoned that post as he had done Fort Tako.^^ 
Then he returned to Camosun. 

*^ ' This course was adopted in consequence of instructions having been 
sent from Red River settlement in Hudson's Bay, then the head-quarters of 
our governor, Sir George Simpson, to establish a depot for whalers on the 
south point of Vancouver Island, as there were many whalers then visiting 
the North Pacific' Finlayson's V. I., MS., 21. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF EMPIRE LAID. 101 

It was on the first day of June that the new 
force landed from the Beaver at Cainosun. But httle 
progress had been made in building since the de- 
parture of the steamer, and there was as yet no 
shelter for stores upon the shore. Carrying forward 
to rapid completion the few log huts already begun, 
the goods were landed, and stored in them, the men 
protecting themselves at night as best they were able, 
until further buildings were erected for their accommo- 
dation. 

From the coasts of Vancouver, the neighboring 
islands, and the contiguous mainland the natives 
flocked in to see the work that was being done, and 
encamped on every side. They w^ere all well armed, 
and were without their wives and children, which 
seemed somewhat suspicious to the fort-builders. The 
fur- trading force at Camosun now numbered fifty men, 
part of whom were from the abandoned posts of Tako 
and McLoughlin, and part from Fort Vancouver. 
This was almost too formidable an array, armed to 
the teeth, and constantly on guard as they were, for 
the natives to think of attacking; so they contented 
themselves with the pilfering of such articles as provi- 
dence threw in their way, for they were thieves uj^on 
principle. 

Three months after the arrival of the parties from 
the north, the stockade, with bastions at the angles 
and store and dweUing houses within, was completed. 
While this work was in progress, the schooner Cadhoro 
arrived with supplies from Fort Vancouver. Mr 
Charles Ross, who had been in charge of Fort Mc- 
Loughlin at the time of the abandonment, being 
senior ofiicer, was placed in command, with Mr Fin- 
layson as second. Then in October, Douglas, pro- 
nouncing the new establishment capable of self-defence, 
departed Avith the Beaver and the Cadhoro, and their 
crews, midst long and lusty cheers from the shore. 
Thus were laid the foundations of a new empire. 



CHAPTER VI. 

AFFAIRS AT CAMOSUN. 
1844. 

Death of Commander Ross — Roderick Finlayson — Sketch or nis 
Career — At Forts Tako and Simpson — Bibliographical Note on his 
Manuscript — His Character — First Cargo of Live-stock — The Sav- 
ages make Game of the Cattle — Redress Demanded and Refused — 
War Declared — Tsoughilam and Tsilalthach with their Allies 
Attack the Fort— Strategy ofFinlayson— Bloodless Victory — The 
Pipe of Peace is Smoked — Descriptions of the Fortress — Warre 
AND Vavasour — Berthold Seemann — Finlayson's Letter — James 
Deans— His Character and Manuscript— Interesting and_ Minute 
Description of the Fort — Under Orders of Douglas, Fort Camosun 
WAS Built without a Nail. 

In the spring of 1844 Ross, the officer in charge, died, 
and Finlayson reigned in his stead. The first duty of 
the new commander was to despatch to Nisqually a 
canoe with a messenger for Fort Vancouver, announc- 
ing the death of Ross. The return express brought 
from McLoughhn authority for Finlayson to remain 
in charge, with a promise of another officer to be sent 
shortly to assist him in carrying on operations. 

On the western highlands of Scotland was born 
Roderick Finlayson, thus destined for a time to rule 
this island. His father was an extensive sheep-farmer, 
and in assisting him, no less than in attending the 
parochial school, the youth was preparing for his 
successful future. 

At the age of sixteen years he left home and began 
making his own way in the world. Crossing the At- 
lantic on an emigrant ship in 1837 to New York, he 
there met an uncle who secured him a position as ap- 
prenticed clerk in the Hudson's Bay Company, and 



RODERICK FINLAYSON. 103 

reported himself at the office in Montreal. After re- 
maining there several months he was appointed to 
Bytown, a station on the Ottawa River. Thence in 
1839 he crossed the mountains to Fort Vancouver, 
where he wintered, hunting in the Willamette Valley, 
shooting duck where Portland now stands, and making 
preparations meanwhile for an expedition northward 
for the purpose of taking possession of the ten-league 
shore strip lately leased from the Russians. Thence 
with James Douglas in command of the party, of 
Avhich were W. G. Rae, John Kennedy, and John Mc- 
Loughlin, junior, in the spring of 1840 he proceeded 
hy way of the Cowlitz River, Nisqually, Langley, Mil- 
bank Sound, and Fort Simpson to the Stikeen River, 
where were left Rae, McLouo'hlin, and eisfhteen men ; 
Douglas, Kennedy, and Finlayson, with the remainder 
of the party, proceeding in the steamer Beaver, which 
had brought them from Nisqually to Sitka. 

In June the party sailed from Sitka for the Tako 
River, where they built a fort, which was left in 
charge of Kennedy, with Finlayson as assistant, and 
eighteen men, Douglas returning to Fort Vancouver. 
After a dreary winter at Tako, in the summer of 
1841 Finlayson was ordered to Stikeen to take the 
place at that station of Mr Rae, who was sent to 
Yerba Buena. There he remained six months, wdien 
he took his place at Fort Simpson as trader. 

Upon the assassination of John McLoughlin, junior, 
by his men at Stikeen, Finlayson proceeded thither 
in a canoe to take command of that post, but on ar- 
rival he found that Governor Simpson had reached 
the place before him, and had provided for its govern- 
ment. Thereupon he returned to Fort Simpson, 
where he remained through 1842, and until he was 
taken thence by Douglas to assist in establishing the 
post at Camosun in the spring of 1843.^ 

^In a manuscript of 104 folio pages, entitled History of Vancouver 
Island and the Korthwest Coast, hi) Roderkh Finlayson, are given the primary 
facts relative to the first establislimcTit on Vancouver Island subsequent to 
the doings at Xootka, some half-century previous. Part of this manuscript 



104 AFFAIRS AT CA:M0SUN. 

There can be no evidence more satisfactory to the 
liistorian in regard to an incident or episode not con- 
nected with contending factions, than the testimony de- 
rived from frequent and close converse, pen in hand, 
with the chief actor in the event. If besides being 
upon the spot and ordering, or doing, and seeing done 
all that was done, we have a witness, intelligent, 
high-minded, of the strictest integrity, careful in his 
statements, precise in the use of words, unbiassed, un- 
bigoted, neither seeking praise nor fearing censure, it 
were strange, indeed, if one seeking facts only could not 
under such circumstances find them. Such a w^itness, 
touching one of the most interesting and important 
events of British Columbia history, namely, clearing 
the ground for the future metropolis, and setting there 
the stakes of civilization, we happily have, in this in- 
stance, in the person of Mr Roderick Finlayson. 

is in the handwiiting of the author; the remainder was taken by reporters 
from Mr Fhilayson's dictation in my presence, and while subject to my inter- 
rogatories. He who would investigate the early affairs of British Columbia, 
more particularly matters relating to the founding of its most important 
establishment, and which led to the building of the present city of Victoria, 
is surprised at the absence of material. There was scarcely a post upon the 
whole Northwest Coast of which I had not more information than concerning 
the foundmg of Camosun, or Victoria, before I began to gather it fi'om un- 
recorded sources. Fortunately in Mr Finlayson I found the man before all 
others for the purpose. Well preserved in mind as in body, clear-headed, 
courteous, intelligent, and public-spirited, he patiently sat with me day after 
day and week after week, until I expi-essed myself satisfied. And to him 
his fellow-members of the commonwealth, and all who care for a knowledge 
of its early incidents, may tender their thanks; for without what he has 
given me there would be little to tell. It is wonderful, indeed, how quickly 
unrecorded facts drop out of existence; and what blind apathy even the most 
prominent men sometimes display concerning most important matters which 
have lain nearest them all their lives, but which did not happen to come 
within the routine of their duties. When asked by Mrs Victor for incidents 
of the early life of John McLoughlin, Mr Douglas replied that he knew noth- 
ing of McLouglilin's early life. Half their lives had been spent in intimate 
business and friendly intercourse; both were wise and prominent men, and 
yet the younger knew absolutely nothing of the elder except what he saw of 
him. Mr Finlayson has a most happy way of presenting facts. His style is 
lucid, exact, and at the same time comprehensive. The chief incidents of iiis 
long and prominent career seemed already arranged in his mind in well de- 
fined sequence. His manuscript, though not as large as some, contains as 
much information as many three times its size, and the importance of his 
information is not exceeded by any. Mr Finlayson presented as fine an ap- 
pearance physically as one not very often meets. Tall, well proportioned, 
erect, and crowned with gray, with fine, full features, expressive at once of 
benevolence and intelligence, his would have been felt as an imposing pres- 
ence in any community. 



CHARACTER OF FINLAYSON. 105 

Every individual is composed of human qualities, 
the worst having much that is good, the best much 
that is bad. And the honest historian deems it his 
duty to present, in every instance, without fear or 
favor, without prejudice or feeling, both phases of 
character, clearly and conscientiously. In rigidly ad- 
hering to this course, he must expect little else but 
censure from any quarter; for praise a man never 
so long or loudly, once a fault is touched he or his 
friends bristle with anger in a moment. In the lives 
of the best of us are some things which we prefer 
should not be brous^ht under too strono- a lio^ht; the 
worst of us do not relish the parading of our wicked- 
ness, nor do we believe it true, or the statement just. 
Before embarking in his too often thankless task, the 
writer of history, if his work be worthy the name, 
must so incase himself in armor as to be wholly in- 
different to attack, relying only on truth, and the 
satisfaction of telling it, for his reward. 

Applying this sentiment to the matter in hand, I 
find myself at a loss in the consummation. No doubt 
Finlayson has bad qualities ; his place is not upon this 
planet otherwise; but unfortunately I have not been 
able to find them. Though always a leading man in 
the company and in the colony, he has not been so 
prominent as to have excited, to any general extent, 
jealousy or obloquy by reason of his position. Among 
business men, among those who have met him almost 
daily for a period of forty years, or are intimate with 
his course and character, he is pronounced a shrewd, 
practical, clear-headed Scotchman, who, though some- 
times seeking office and assuming public duties, med- 
dles little with his neighbors' affairs, but attends to 
his own business, and does it so well and thoroughly 
as usually to command success. Kind, benevolent, 
honorable, and exceedingly courteous, showing him- 
self by instinct a gentlemen in the highest sense of 
that much misapplied word, he possesses neither the 
genius nor the weakness of McLoughlin, nor the chiv- 



106 APFAIRS AT C.IMOSUK. 

nlrous strengtli or tlie cold calculating formality of 
Douglas. He is not wholly self-abandoned in his well- 
doing like the one, nor snow-capped, by reason of his 
moral or political elevation, like the other. Being not 
so great a man as either, his faults do not stand out 
so conspicuously. 

\Ye will now continue our narrative of affairs at 
Camosun. 

V/hen the Cadhoro and the Beaver sailed away 
about their business the previous October, the latter 
proceeded to Fort Nisqualty, and taking on board a 
cargo of cattle and horses, returned with them to 
Camosun. Thereafter regular trips were made, and 
soon Camosun became the home station of the little 
steamer, whence she departed on her several missions. 

The cattle brought from Nisqually were chiefly of 
Mexican origin, and were wild and unmanageable. 
When first turned loose from the steamer, with head 
and tail erectr they darted hither and thither, and then 
plunged into the thicket; and it was with no small 
difficulty that they were finally corralled and controlled. 
In due time, however, a sufiicient number for building 
and farming purposes were subdued and brought under 
the yoke, and when not at work were turned out to 
graze, as were likewise the horses and other cattle. 

The savages regarded with wonder not unmixed 
with contempt this new species of game trained to 
do women's work, and thereby rendered wellnigh un- 
fit for the accomplishment of their high destiny, which 
was to be killed and eaten. Besides, if this thing was 
to be, what would women do; what would wives be 
good for? Not only would they become idle, lazy, 
and too proud to work, but they would so fall in value 
as materially to affect the wealth and standing of 
those possessing six or ten. Their blood-thirsty logic 
was convincing to their own minds at least, and in- 
deed overpowering, notwithstanding the white men 
had warned them, under penalty of severe displeas- 



HOSTILITIES. 107 

ure, to treat these civilized beasts with distinguished 
consideration. 

Among those encamped in the vicinity of the fort, 
and who watched operations with as keen a zest 
as any, was a band of Cowichins, whose chief was 
Tsoughilam, and who had come down from the north 
on a plmidering expedition. 

The horses and cattle of the fort-builders were 
magnificent prey for these brigands, particularly the 
work-animals, which were finer, fatter, and more 
easily approached than the others. It was not often 
the good gods sent them such abundant benefit at so 
small a cost; and to decline them might seem ungrate- 
ful. So some of the best of the work oxen and horses 
were killed, and the Cowichins were filled to their 
utmost content. 

The day of reckoning quickly came. The fort- 
builders, having need of their cattle, went out for them 
one morning, and found in place of their faithful as- 
sistants only blood and bones, the more valuable parts 
of the carcasses being easily traced to the Cowichin 
camp. Finlayson immediately despatched a messen- 
ger to Tsoughilam, demanding delivery of the offend- 
ers, or pajiiient for the slain animals. The savage 
attempted intimidation, pretended ingenuousness, 
though he knew well enough he was criminal. 

"What!" exclaimed to the messenger the lordly 
aboriginal, "these animals yours! Did you make 
them ? Are these your fields that fatten them ? I 
thought them the property of nature; and whatever 
nature sends me, that I slay and eat, asking no ques- 
tions, and paying no damages." 

" These cattle were brought from beyond the great 
sea," replied the messenger; "they belonged to those 
wlio brought them ; and unless you make proper res- 
titution, the gates of the fort will be closed against 
you." 

' Close your gates, if you like !" exclaimed Tsough- 
ilam, now thoroughly enraged, " and I will batter 



108 AFFAIRS AT CA^IOSUN". 

them down ! Close your gates forsooth ! Think you 
we did not hve before the white man came ? and think 
you we should die were he swept from these shores?" 

It was no idle threat that Tsoughilam thus made. 
There were others in the neighborhood, bold chief- 
tains with their w^arriors, not least among whom was 
Tsilalthach, the greatest and bravest of the Songhies, 
who had watched these many days, with itching palms, 
the good things carried in behind the palisades, and 
who would not scruple in the least to attempt to 
secure some of them. Though not exactly upon his 
own domain, Tsoughilam almost felt at home there by 
reason of his oft-repeated depredations. He might 
set up a sort of claim by right of conquest. At all 
events, his right was as reasonable as was the white 
man's. Summoning to a council all the chiefs within 
his call, he said to them: 

^' Reptiles have crept hither, reptiles with strange 
stings, whom it were well to crush upon the spot lest 
they should soon overspread the whole island The 
reward for such labor may be found behind the pal- 
isades." 

Then arose Tsilalthach, chief of the Songhies, and 
said: "We and our forefathers have lived in happiness 
upon this island for many ages before the existence of 
these strangers was known. We have eaten the fruits 
of the earth, have bathed in the waters and in the 
sunshine, have hunted our forests unquestioned of any, 
and have fought away our enemies manfully. Is all 
now to be taken from us?" 

The spirit of butchery was aroused. " We will 
meet this new infliction," cried another, "as we have 
met those in the past. We can do without bedizen- 
ments; or, what is better, we can take them without 
the asking." 

Meanwhile within the fort watch was kept day 
and night to prevent surprise. After a lapse of two 
days, during which a large force had assembled round 
the fortress, the threatened attack was made. Midst 



THE FORT ATTACKED. 109 

savage yells and terrifying antics, such as should put 
to flight a host of hobgoblins, men, or devils, a shower 
of musket-balls came pattering down upon the fort, 
riddling the stockade and rattling on the roofs of the 
liouses. Instantly Finlayson shouted his order that 
not a shot was to be returned, though it was with the 
utmost difficulty he could restrain his men. The sav- 
ages continued their fire for full half an hour, when 
seeing no prospect of annihilation near, they rested 
from their waste of ammunition. Then the com- 
mander of the fort appeared upon the parapet and 
beckoned Tsoughilam within speaking distance. 

"What would you do?" exclaimed Finlayson. 
" What evil would you bring upon yourselves? What 
folly with your peppery guns to think to demolish our 
stronghold ! Know you not that with one motion of 
my finger I could blow you all into the bay ? And I 
will do it, too. See jonr houses yonder ! And in- 
stantly upon the word a nine-pounder belched forth 
witli astounding noise, a large load of grape-shot tear- 
ing into splinters the cedar lodge at which it was 
pointed. 

A hundred howls of agony rent the air, as if by 
that single shot all the women and children of the 
island had been blown to atoms. 

And so they would have been doubtless injured 
somewhat had thc}^ been there, as many of their woe- 
stricken husbands and fathers supposed they were. 
But the humane Finlayson had no desire to depopu- 
late the isle, or even to injure a hair of a single abo- 
riginal head. Before seeking a parley, and while the 
bullets were falling thick around him, he had formed 
a plan for teaching them a salutary lesson without 
doing them injury. He had ordered his interpreter 
to slip from the back gate and run for his life, as if 
escaping from a deadly foe, and on arriving at the 
lodges designated to warn the inmates to instant flight, 
as the fort was preparing to fire upon them. Hence 
no damage was done save the shivering to splinters 



no AFFAIRS AT CAMOSUN. 

of some pine slabs. And much good was accom- 
plished, as the result will show. 

Some little time was allowed to elapse after the 
firing of the shot, that the savages might have oppor- 
tunity to gather somewhat their dusky senses. Pres- 
ently a deputation of their principal men appeared 
before the fort and requested a parley with the white 
chief Finlayson told them they might come within 
the stockade; and as a guaranty of his good faith, he 
would send out two of his men as hostages. The 
offer was accepted, and the deputation entered the 
fort. 

Then Finlayson fully explained to them how easily 
he could destroy them if he would. He showed them 
his men, his big guns and his little guns, and powder 
and balls, and knives and swords. He assured them 
that he wished them only good ; but he insisted that 
those who killed the oxen sliould be given up for pun- 
ishment, or the cattle paid for. They preferred the 
latter alternative, and before night fur to the full 
amount of the damage was delivered at the fort gate. 
The pipe of peace was then smoked, and promises of 
friendship exchanged. Next day the natives asked 
to see the great gun tried again ; whereupon Finlay- 
son told them to station an old canoe out in the water, 
and pointing the cannon at it he fired. Away went 
the ball, and after cutting a great hole in the boat, 
bounded along the surface of the water to the oppo- 
site shore. The savages' respect for civilized institu- 
tions was duly increased. 

But the white man's laws as gradually revealed to 
them were seldom palatable. For example, not long 
after the cattle-killing affair certain Skagits from 
Whidbey Island" came to Camosun to trade. Their 
business done, they started for their boats; but before 
reaching them the Songhies fell upon the visitors and 
stripped them of their goods; for between the Ska- 
gits and the Songhies, just as between France and 
Germany, feuds had long existed. Now, in the big 



DESCRIPTIO:?^ OF THE FORT. Ill 

book of the fur-hunters is it not written that trading 
skins is a sacred calHng, and that consequently the 
persons of skin-sellers are sacred? Therefore when 
the Skaofits returned with loner faces to the fort and 
told their tale, the commander ordered the immediate 
restoration of the stolen goods, under penalty of his 
displeasure and absolute cessation of trade, which 
was done. Steal and butcher among yourselves, or 
on any other occasion, as much as you will ; but at 
your peril touch the pilgrim who brings hither the 
gains we love. 

The fort was situated, as we have seen, on the east 
side of the inlet, directly opposite the chief village 
of the Songhies, which was distant some four hundred 
yards, and between which places was constant com- 
munication by boats. As usual, the chiefs were kept 
friendly by presents and a judicious balancing of 
power by Mr Finlayson, for whom they entertained 
the highest respect.^ 

The square enclosed by the cedar pickets, which 
were eighteen feet above ground, was one hundred and 
fifty yards on every side, with two block-houses or 
bastions at the angles, and dwellings and storehouses 
within the enclosure.^ 

Although building was not entirely over for several 
years, the fort proper and the usual building within 
the palisades we-re well advanced during this year of 
1844. As there is no period in the history of a com- 
monwealth possessing a more keen and lasting interest 
tlian that of the rude incipiency of its metropolis, I 

"On the opposite side of the harbor is a large native village; the dis- 
tance across is only 400 yards, and canoes keep up constant communication 
between it and the fort. Certain supplies to the cfiiefs keep them in good 
humor with their intruding visitors. The houses of the natives ' are built 
with solidity, the climate rendering it necessary to guard against the cold, 
and arrange with some degree of order in streets or lanes with passages run- 
ning up between them. Several familtes occupy the same house— one large 
shed, little better than an open cow-house or stable in an indifferent inn, 
the compartments or walls hardly exeluJing the "sight of one family from 
another. Seetnann's Voy. llerall, i. 105-6. See also Xtitire Races, i. 17-i-'J08. 

* This is Mr Finlayson 's statement. Hist. V. I., MS., 31-'J. Others who 
know less about it give other figures. 



112 AFFAIRS AT CAMOSUN. 

shall give the impressions of a few early visitors in 
their own words. 

Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour, who were there 
in 1845, report the 26th of October: "We visited the 
Hudson's Bay Company's post, . . .where they have 
established a fort similar to those already described, 
a farm of several hundred acres, on which they raise 
wheat and potatoes, and a depot of provisions, supplies, 
etc., for the different trading-posts farther to the 
north." And again the latter of the above-named 
gentlemen says in a report to Colonel Holloway dated 
the 1st of March 1846: "Fort Victoria is situated at 
the southern end of Vancouver's Island, in the small 
harbor of Cammusan, the entrance to which is rather 
intricate. The fort is a square enclosure of one hun- 
dred yards, surrounded by cedar pickets twenty feet 
in height, having two octagonal bastions containing 
each six six-pounder iron guns at the north-east and 
south-west angles. The buildings are made of squared 
timber, eight in number, forming three sides of an 
oblong. This fort has lately been established; it is 
badly situated with regard to water and position, which 
latter has been chosen for its agricultural advantages 
only. . . . This is the best built of the company 's forts ; 
it requires loop-holing and a platform or gallery to en- 
able men to fire over the pickets. A ditch might be 
cut round it, but the rock appears on the surface in 
many places."* 

Berthold Seemann, naturalist on board H. M. S. 
Herald, who visited the place in July 1846, says: 
"The fort is a square enclosure, stockaded with poles 
about twenty feet high, and eight or ten inches in 
diameter, placed close together, and seamed with a 
cross-piece of nearly equal size. At the transverse 
corners of the square there are strong octagonal 
towers, mounted with four nine-pounder guns flank- 
ing each side, so that an attack by savages would be 
out of the question; and if defended with spirit, a dis- 

* House Commons Returns to Three Addresses, 7, 11 12. 



LAYING OUT A TOWN. 113 

ciplined force without artillery would find considerable 
difficulty in forcing the defences. The square is about 
one hundred and twenty yards, but an increase, which 
will nearly double its length from north to south, is 
contemplated. The building is even now, though 
plain to a fault, imposing from its mass and extent, 
while the bastions or towers diminish the tameness 
which its regular outline would otherwise produce. The 
interior is occupied by the officers' houses, or apart- 
ments they should rather be called, stores, and a trad- 
ing house, in which smaller bargains are concluded, 
and tools, agricultural implements, blankets, shawds, 
beads, and all the multifarious products of Sheffield, 
Birmingham, ]\Ianchester, and Leeds, are offered at 
exorbitant prices." 

"In 1852," saj'S Finlayson, "the town of Victoria 
was laid out in streets, then bounded on the west by 
the harbor, on the east by the present Government 
street, on the south by the old fort, and on the north 
by the present Johnson street. Outside of these 
boundaries w^ere the fields which were under cultiva- 
tion."^ This will enable the reader to locate to-day 
t]ie exact spot on which the fort stood. 

But by far the best account extant of the place as 
it existed at an early day is that given me by my 
iriend James Deans,^ of Vancouver Island, who de- 
scribes it as he first saw it in January 1853: "The 
bastions were of hewn logs some thirty feet in height, 
and were connected by palisades about twenty feet 
high. Within the palisades were the stores, num- 
bered from one to five, and a blacksmith shop, besides 

'' Finlayson s Letters, MS., Oct. 18, 1879. 

^Setllement of Vancouver Island, MS., by James Deans, Victoria, 1878. 
Mr Deans was born at Armisfielil, Haddingtonshire, Scotland, on the 17th of 
June 1827. Leaving London the 17th of August 1852, on the H. B. Co. '3 
bark Xorman Morrison, he arrived at Victoria the IGth of January folhjwing. 
Britisli ( "olumbia has been his place of residence ever since. Thus, under hia 
continuous observation, society and the commonwealth have arisen and de- 
vulopt'd, and being a close and intelligent observer, an original thinker, and 
a fearless speaker, his manuscript constitutes no unimportant part of my 
material for this portion of my history. I shall have occasion to refer to it 
many times during the progrej3 of thij worli. 

UlKT. ElUT. COL. 8 



114 AFFAIRS AT CAMOSUN. 

dining-hall, cook-house, and chapel. . . .The site of the 
fort was an oak opening. The ground, to the extent 
of an acre, was cleared and enclosed by a palisade 
forming a square. On the north and south corners 
was a tower containing six or eight pieces of ord- 
nance each. The north one served as a prison, the 
south one for firing salutes whenever the governor 
visited any place officially. In the centre of the east 
and west sides were main gate-ways, each having a 
little door to let people out or in after hours. On the 
right, entering by the front or south gate, was a cot- 
tage in which was the post-office. It was kept by an 
officer of the company, a Captain Sangster. Next in 
order was the smithy. Next and first on the south 
side was a large storehouse, in which fish-oil, etc., 
were stowed away. Next came the carpenter's shop. 
Close to this was a large room provided with bunks 
for the company's men to sleep in. Next, and last on 
that side, was a laro^e buildino- a sort of barrack for 
new arrivals. Between this corner and the east gate 
were the chapel and chaplain's house. On the other 
side of this gate was a large building which served as 
a dining-room for the officers; adjoining this were the 
cook-house and pantry. On the fourth side was a 
double row of buildings for storing fur previous to 
shipment to England, and goods before taking their 
place in the trading store. Behind these stores was 
a fire-proof building used as a magazine for storing 
gunpowder. On the lower corner was another cottage 
in which lived Finlayson and family, who was then 
chief factor. On the other side of the front or west 
gate was the flag-staff and belfry. The central part 
of the enclosure was open, and was always kept clean. 
Through this enclosure ran the main road leading 
from the two gates. On one side of this road was a 
well in which a lamentable accident happened early 
in the rush of 1858. This well was about thirty feet 
in depth, down to the bed-rock, which dipped sud- 
denly toward the harbor, leaving, when the warer got 



DOUGLAS AND FIXLAYSOX. 115. 

low, the upper part of it dry, while at the lower part 
there were three or four feet of water. It was lined 
with stone-work up to the surface, then covered with 
wood. To this well the miners came for their supply 
of water, wliicJi was hauled up with a rope and bucket. 
While one of them was hauling up water the rope 
broke and let his kettle fall to the bottom. In order 
to save his kettle, he gave an Indian a dollar to go 
down and fish it up. The Indian went down and 
stood on the dry part of the rock. After trying a 
little while, and unable to grapple the kettle, in order 
to help him to recover it the miner swung himself 
down by the rope. When about ten feet down his 
feet struck the stone-work. In an instant the whole 
wall fell down on the Indian, who, poor fellow, died 
instantly, crushed to death at the bottom. A number 
of people came and quickly recovered his body. The 
well was ordered to be filled up, which was done. 
Only one of all the old buildings now remains, which 
is the store known as number three. It is at present 
used as a theatre" — that is to say, in 1878. 

Characteristic of Douglas was the desire to accom- 
plish the greatest possible results with the smallest 
means, a praiseworthy quality if not carried too fan 
During his wide experience he had often been forced 
to this econonw of capital, and what he had done he 
compelled others to do. If a fort was to be built, 
Douglas would specify the number of men to be em- 
ployed, the tools to be used, among which the never- 
failing Canadian chopping-adze was always prominent, 
if indeed it was not the only one, if I may except a 
few augers, chisels, and saws. Finlayson had been 
the pupil of Douglas, as Douglas had been the pupil 
of McLoughlin. 

Under the influence of Douglas, Finlayson imbibed 
similar ideas; so that when ordered to build Fort 
Cam(^sun without a single nail, he did it. Strange 
as it may appear, houses, palisades, and bastions were 



116 AFFAIRS AT CAMOSUN, 

erected without the use of one iron nail or spike, 
wooden pegs alone being employed/ 

''Besides Finlaysons Hist. V. I., MS., passim; Deans' Settlement V. I., MS., 
passim; Douglas' Voyage to the Northwest Coast, in Journal, MS., 120-7; 
Bolduc, in Z>e Smet's Or. Miss., 55-65; and Waddingtons Fraser Mines, on 
whose evidence this and the preceding chapter rest— I may infer to Evans' 
Hist. Or., MS., 279; Sirnpson's Or. Ter., 47; Mies' Beg., Ixix. 134; Seemanns 
Voy. Herald, i. 101-3; Maine's B. C, 26-57; Kane's Wanderings, 215; Guide 
to B. C, 281^; Martin's H. B., 34-5; Grant, in London Geog. Soc., Jour., xxvi. 
272; McKinlay's Nar., MS., 7; Overland Monthly, xv. 497; James Douglas, H. 
B. Co. Ev. H. B. Co. Claims, 49-61; Cooper, Mar. Matters, MS., passim; Haz- 
litt's B. C, 157, copied verbatim from Grant; Tolmie's Puget Sound, MS., 19; 
Hmvison's Bept., 36; Macjie's B. C, 58; Blanchard, in House Commons Rept., 
1857, 290, 294; Cooper, in House Common.'^ Rept., 1857, 208; Good's British 
Columbia, MS,, 2; Tod's Neiv Caledonia, MS., 19. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CAMOSUN, ALBERT, VICTORIA. 
1845. 

EXTERMTNATIOX OP SaVAGE NOMENCLATURE — CaMOSTJN BeCOMFS FiBST 

Albert, and then Victoria^Food Supply — Douglas' Motto, Great 
Ends from Small Means — Wooden Ploughs and Rope Harness — A 
More Liberal Economy Sometimes Profitable — Outward-bound 
Ships from England now Come Directly Hither — Whaling Fleets 
— The Mission of the 'America ' — Captain Gordon as a Sportsman — 
hospitaltty at fort victoria — ' fifty-four forty or fight '— more 
Vessels of War at Victoria — Also Surveyors and Appraisers of 
Terrftories — The Northwest Coast not Worth Fighting for'- 
Adventures of Paul Kane. — Fort Victoela. in Early Days. 

Back into the woods, you greased and painted red- 
skins! Go! And take your belongings — all of them, 
that is, all except what civilization would have. But 
chiefly take yourselves, your past, your future; take 
your names of things and places ; take your lares et 
penates, take your legends and traditions. Begone ! 
Blot yourselves out! Why should you be remem- 
bered ? What have you done as tenants of this domain 
except to occupy, and eat and sleep, and keep it fresh 
and virgin as God gave it you, until some stronger 
hand should come and wrest it from you? Thanks, 
gentle savage ; but go ! And please do not die here 
under our cultivated noses. You need execute no 
testament ; we will administer your estate. Go ! Be 
forgotten! Be not! And let not your late home 
breathe of your former being. 

For the first two years of its existence, as we ha\-Te 
seen, the post at the south end of Vancouver Island 
was called by the native name of the place, Camosun. 



118 CAMOSUN, ALBERT, VICTORIA. 

It was now deemed advisable, not to say necessary, 
to eradicate all traces of nature and the natural man; 
it was thought in better taste, with the levelling of. 
forests and the tearing up of rocks, to blast from 
memory the sylvan race that once were masters there. 
It happened there lived somewhere a man whose 
name was Albert, whom it were well for the adven- 
turers of England to conciliate ; therefore, in the year 
of grace 1845, orders came from the London magnates, 
to damn the name Camosun, and call the place Fort 
Albert. But even then they were not satisfied ; for 
behold, upon this planet there w^as one mightier than 
Albert, even his wife, the queen; and so before the 
year had expired Camosun was called Victoria, each 
new baptism being celebrated by the usual salutes and 



No sooner were the stockade, storehouses, and 
dwellings prepared than the people at Camosun 
turned their attention to the production of food. 
"For," said Finlayson, "after the first year many ap- 
plications for agricultural produce from head-quarters 
Avould be ascribed to want of energy on the part of 
the officers in charge," and holding fast to the motto 
of Douglas, "great ends from small means," the 
omnipotent adze was sharpened, and Avooden ploughs 
and harrows were made, the mould-board and teeth 
being of oak; old ropes obtained from the coasting 
vessels were used as traces for the horses to pull by. 
Afterward, seeing how industrious and thrifty they 
were, as a mark of his special favor Douglas indulged 
them in the extravagance of a few iron ploughshares 

Finlayson says, Hist. V. I., MS., 26: 'In the year 1845 the name of 
Camosun previously given to the fort was changed to Fort Albert by order 
from England, and the succeeding year to that of Victoria. ' This I should 
regard as the highest authority did I not find a higher in the report of lieu- 
tentants Warre and Vavasour, Nome o/Commo7is Returns to Three Addresses, 
7, dated the 26th of October 1845, in which the post is plainly designated 
Fort Victoria. This may have been done without proper authority, or it 
may not have been commonly called by that name, or baptized into it before 
1846. At most, the discrepancy iu the time of the change of name involves 
but a few months. 



GREAT LXDS FROM SMALL MEANS. 119 

fi'om Fort Vancouver; and whetting their Scotch 
ingenuity still further, they took the iron hoops from 
old provision casks and with them lined the mould- 
boards of the plough and bound the wooden agricul- 
tural machinery. Agricultural outhouses were built; 
and grain was thrashed by driving horses round a 
ring in the barn. Flour was made with a steel hand- 
mill sent from Fort Vancouver. 

Perhaps a more liberal economy would have better 
served the purpose, though it might not so well have 
served James Douglas. McLoughlin was making 
ready to retire from the service, and remove from 
Fort Vancouver to Oregon City the coming winter, 
leaving Chief Factor Douglas first in command on 
the Pacific. This new post on Vancouver Island was 
undoubtedly destined to great things. Mr Grant 
says: ''As in settling there, no idea was entertained 
by the Hudson's Bay Company beyond starting a 
fresh trading-post with the Indians, the establishment 
remained in statu quo until the year 1849, when the 
granting of the whole island to the company opened 
out a fresh field for their exertions;" but in this he is 
mistaken. We know that the company harbored far 
more ambitious views for Camosun, or by the grace 
of God, Albert, and Victoria, than the establishing 
of an ordinary trading-post there, though Mr Grant 
did not. The great men of the great monopoly were 
wholly able to keep their own counsel, and those 
nearest them, in point of time as well as of distance, 
often knew least as to the project or policy revolving 
in their mighty minds. 

Had a trading-post alone been the measure of their 
expectations, Langley would have answered. At Lang- 
ley were both furs and fisheries; there was little local 
trade on this south end of Vancouver Island. No, 
the day was coming when progress should demand 
somewhere in this western north a British city. 
Already the Americans Avere upon them, and had 
spoiled their southern grounds. Possibly they might 



120 CAMO:;UN, ALSEUT, VICTORIA. 

nurse their western hyperborean game 3-et a century 
or two as they had done in Rupert Land; or, if hard 
pressed, they might spare the island to civilization and 
yet hold the mainland savage. 

Howbeit, with metropolitan glories far or near, with 
or without the assistance of the whale-catchers, this 
new post would prove more than the usual trafficking 
stockade. Therefore Douglas would begin his reign 
with reform, and carry yet more than ever into rigid 
practice his principle of the greatest results from the 
least means. 

Almost immediately Fort Victoria became the sec- 
ond depot of Hudson's Bay Company goods on the 
Pacific coast, and shortly afterward the first. Out- 
ward-bound ships from England now had orders to 
sail direct for this port, and after landing here all the 
goods destined for the coast trade, to proceed to the 
Columbia Kiver with the remainder. Hence the sta- 
tion rose rapidly in importance. 

There were now three vessels in the company's ser- 
vice between London and the Northwest Coast, the 
Vancouver, the Coivlitz, and the Columbia. These ships 
made yearly voyages, bringing outfits always twelve 
months in advance, which enabled the fort to have on 
hand one or two years' supply. The first to enter 
Victoria Harbor direct from England was the Van- 
couver in 1845.^ 

A fleet of five American whalers dropped in at 
Royal Bay in 1845 for supplies. And yearly after 
that they called at Fort Victoria, until finally it was 
found that the Hawaiian Islands ofii'ered a more con- 
venient port of call. Indeed, the hope of Governor 
Simpson to establish here a general rendezvous for 
whalers was never fully realized. 

During this same year Juan de Fuca Strait was 
honored by a visit from her majesty's ship America, 

2 The Vancouver is reported at Victoria again in November 1846, and in 
1847 the bark Columbia at Honolulu twenty-six days from Vancouver Island. 



nSIT OF GORDOX. 121 

wliose captain was Gordon, brother of the earl of 
Aberdeen, then prime-minister of England. Knowing- 
little or nothing of Esquimalt and Victoria liarbors, 
Gordon put in to Port l)iscoveiy, sending a despatch, 
as he was passing through the strait, to tlie officer in 
charge at Fort Victoria to come on board his vessel. 

Placing his first officer in charge of the fort, Finlay- 
son returned with the messenger to the Am erica, and 
soon stood in the presence of the august commander. 
A series of catechisings then set in, which lasted three 
days, at the expiration of which, Finlayson, squeezed 
of all information in his power to impart, was sent 
back to his post. Captain Gordon and certain of his 
officers accompanying him. 

The object of the America's visit was to obtain in- 
formation concerning the coast, such as should assist 
the English government in settling the boundary 
question then pending. To this end, while Finlayson 
was yet on board. Captain Parke of the marines, 
and Lieutenant Peel, son of Sir Robert Peel, were 
despatched by way of the Cowlitz to the Columbia, 
to ascertain the value of that region to the subjects 
of Great Britain. 

As the time drew near when the rights of owner- 
ship and occupation must be finally determined, Brit- 
ish statesmen asked themselves. Is the country worth 
liaving? Further than this, is it worth fighting for? 
Tliese queries they put to the London management 
of tlie Hudson's Bay Company, and the answers were 
not satisfactory. The company cared nothing for the 
value of the country, cared little whether England 
should fight for it. Their interest lay in preserving 
it as a hunting-ground. So long as that was done, and 
they enjoyed a monopoly of the fur-trade, all was well. 
If their plans were to be spoiled, it mattered little to 
them whether it was done by the English government, 
or by American settlers. When McLoughlin was 
asked this question, he answered plainly that he did 
not think the country worth fighting for. 



122 CAMOSUN, ALBERT, VICTORIA. 

It was not everyday that brothers and sons of earls 
and baronets dropped in upon the quiet traders, and 
all were well aware that England now expected Fin- 
layson to do his duty. First of all, the America's 
officers were duly feasted, this being a custom which 
English gentlemen as well as American savages de- 
lighted in. Fatted calves were killed, also swine and 
poultry; and hunters were sent out for game. To 
native delicacies were added home productions, which 
well cooked and served with the choicest wines and 
liquors satisfied, the stomach and warmed the heart 
into solemn good-fellowship. 

It was really necessary the dinner should pass off 
well if the service was to escape disgrace, for when 
bedtime came there were no sumptuous apartments 
into which to show the guests. Eating and sleeping 
were two quite distinct affairs at Fort Victoria. 
There were no wives, civilized or savage, in the offi- 
cers' quarters of the fort ; indeed, Finlayson's was the 
only bed, and that was a sinoflo cot sluno- against the 
bare walls. This was given to the ca])tain, while 
the others slept on the floor. 

At the breakfast table next morning a large, fine 
salmon was placed before the guests, smoking hot. 

"What is that?" demanded the captain. 

" Salmon," said Finlayson; "we have plenty of them 
here." 

" Have you flies and rods ? " 

"We use lines and bait; the Indians catch them in 
nets ; we have no flies and rods 1 " 

" No flies! no rods !" responded the puzzled captain, 
who, like many others, prided himself most on what 
he knew least about, and could scarcely imagine a 
greater disgrace to English sportsmen than the adop- 
tion of aborio'inal customs in fishino- or huntina^. " No 
flies ! no rods ! Well, you have indeed turned sav- 



Fishing in Fuca Strait being out of the question, 
without the customary adjuncts attending angling in 



OPINIONS. 123 

Britisli trout-streams, horses were ordered, the fiiiect 
and fleetest the island afforded. The British sailors 
were now to show their benighted countrymen how 
deer were stalked. 

Even nature, flatti^red hy the presence of the illus- 
trious visitors, had put on her gayest apparel. Biding 
forth ui)on the wild sward carpeted with flowers, be- 
tween forests and fern-fringed thickets, the rich green 
of the hill-top foliage pluming the illimitable blue, the 
dancing waters below, and the frozen sunshine above, 
the breast of the honest fur-trader heaved somewhat 
exultant over the island's loveliness. After waiting 
in vain for some expression of appreciation on the 
part of his companions, he modestly asked, "Is not 
this beautiful V 

''Finlayson," replied Gordon, "I would not give 
one of the bleakest knolls of all the bleak hills of 
Scotland for twenty islands arrayed like this in bar- 
baric glories." 

Finlayson could not help asking himself what the 
government meant in sending such an ass to set a 
valuation on the Northwest Coast. 

Presently a band of deer started up, the party pur- 
sued, and just as Gordon was ready to shoot, the game 
disappeared in a thicket which the mounted hunters 
could not penetrate. The captain thereupon broke 
out into new cursings, and demanded how deer could 
be shot in a country like this. 

" We have men who can average six a day," said 
Finlayson, " and that without fatigue ; but as the game 
of the island is not yet enclosed in park fences, and 
we cannot run it down through these thickets, we are 
obliged to steal upon it unawares, which is easily done 
by those who understand it." 

In a very bad humor the sailors returned to the 
fort, and after a week of eating and drinking, which 
they most of all enjoyed, they went on board their 
ship. Meanwhile, accompanied by Douglas, who was 
doing the honors in that quarter, Parke and Peel re- 



124 CAMOSUN, ALBERT, VICTORIA. 

turned from the Columbia River, apparently as dis- 
gusted with the country in that direction as Gordon 
had been with Vancouver Island. When the expe- 
dition returned to England, and made its intelligent 
and valuable report, British statesmen were amply 
able to give the subject the clearest consideration. 

And now while the cry of ''fifty-four forty or fight" ^ 
was ringing throughout the United States, and while 
in England there was likewise no small excitement 
relative to the interests of Great Britain on the 
Pacific, there appeared before Fort Victoria several 
British vessels, which had been ordered from the 
south Pacific to guard British interests on the North- 
west Coast. 

These were the Cormorant^ Captain Gordon^ — not 
the Gordon of the former visit, but another of that 
name; the Fisgard, Captain Duntze; the Constance, 
Captain Courtney; the Inconsfmit, Captain Shepherd; 
and the surveying vessels Herald, Captain Kellett, 
and Pandora, Captain Wood. Thus again in 1846 
Einlayson was called upon to dance attendance on 
maritime magnificos. Beef cattle were driven up for 
the officers to shoot, and wild horses for them to 
break, Douglas and Finlayson were often on the 
vessels to dinner, and the officers used to ask them, 
^' Why do you leave the Columbia? If we could only 
be sent there, we would take the whole country in 
twenty four hours." After these came the frigate 
Thetis and other vessels. All these ships found the 
fortress of Victoria revelling in fat things; nor were 
the officers slow to provision their vessels from the 
stock of cattle and produce there abounding. 

Several of these ships were given some little com- 
mission other than the primary one of guarding British 
rights and frowning on the obstreperous encroach- 
ments of the Americans. Thus Captain Duntze of 

* That is to say, if Great Britain did not yield to the United States peace- 
able possession of all territory west of the Rocky Mountains, between the 
possessions of Mexico on the south and Russia on the north, which latter 
bound was latitude 54° 40', the Americans would fight for it. 



SEYMOUR AND KELLETT. 125 

tlie Fisgard was directed by Rear-admiral G. F. Sey- 
mour, commander-ill-chief of her majesty's fleet in the 
.>.tuth Pacific, and whose report to the admiralty was 
dated on board the Collingwood, Valparaiso, 8tli Feb- 
ruary 1847, to "ascertain whether coals could be sup- 
plied in sufficient quantities for the use of steamers on 
Quadra or Vancouver Island," and Duntze accordingly 
sent the steam- vessel Cormorant thither. The result, 
so far as its bearing upon the coal interest is concerned, 
will be given hereafter/ 

Henry Kellett, commanding the Herald and the 
Pandora, which appeared before Fort Victoria in July 
1846, being tugged from deep surroundings by the 
Cormorant, w^hich was there before them, made a super- 
ficial survey of Fuca Strait, and then sailed south- 
ward. Subsequently Kellett became conspicuous by 
three cruises to the Arctic regions, in search of Sir 
John Franklin. 

Besides the war-vessels of the Pacific squadron, 
whose officers w^ere to report on the resources and con- 
dition of the country, as well as guard their govern- 
ment's interests therein, a special commission of inquiry 
was sent from England by way of Canada to ascertain 
yet more definitely what the Northwest Coast was 
worth, and how matters stood there. Two engineers, 
lieutenants Warre and Vavasour, were selected by 
the government for this purpose, and they arrived 
at Fort Vancouver in 1845 by the annual express 
from York Factory, that year in charge of Chief 
Factor Ogden. 

In addition to this commission by the government, 
these gentlemen were to perform a little secret service 
for the Hudson's Bay Company council in London, 
which was no less than to act as spies on McLough- 
lin, especially in reference to his intercourse and deal- 
ings with settlers from the United States. 

* 'As I withdrew the Cormorant from the Northwest Coast, on hearing of 
the arrangement of the Oregon (juestion, I presume none will he required 
under present circumstances for lier majesty's service.' Seymours Kept, to 
Admtv. \-^ ",v(. M Home Commons Returnis to Three Addressc)^, 1S48-9, 3. 



123 CAMOSUX, ALBERT, ^^CTORIA. 

I do not doubt that these gentleraen performed their 
duties conscientiously. They examined the Columbia 
River and the country south of it; they visited Puget 
Sound and Vancouver Island, and made a lengthy 
report on its resources; they spoke of the coal, the 
fisheries, and the timber; but they did not think the 
country worth fighting for. Their report concerning 
McLoughlin was likewise unfavorable, so much so 
that they sent it off secretly, without showing it to 
him, which was contrary to custom, and suspicious 
if not insulting. On the strength of this report, the 
London management wrote McLoughlin a letter of 
reproof, which, though subsequently apologized for, 
led to the immediate resignation of that most valu- 
able officer. 

Travellinof was now becomingf somewhat danoerous 
along the middle Columbia, even for the Hudson's 
Bay people, owing to animosities arising from con- 
flicting interests. As a rule, however enraged the 
savages might be against Americans, their faith in the 
British fur-traders remained unshaken. But in 1844, 
when J. W. McKay first came to Fort Vancouver, 
he found that the natives along some parts of the 
route were not to be trusted. 

After spending some time with Paul Eraser, wno 
had established a post for the Hudson's Bay Company 
near the mouth of the Umpqua, and after being pres- 
ent at several political meetings in Oregon, where, to 
his no small amusement, he saw nominated for office 
old servants of the company, ignorant voyageurs, whose 
ideas of government were but little above those of a 
grizzly bear, he was detailed to attend on the oflScers 
of the British government in their examination of the 
country, to take charge of the baggage, and provide 
animals, guides, and equipage. McKay testifies that 
with regard to the Cowlitz country and the region 
between the Columbia and Fuca Strait, they declared 
that it should be held at all hazard. If by this he 



CUNARD'S VIEWS 127 

means that such was the general and final impressicn 
expressed by the officers of the Aberdeen ministry 
here investioatino- in 1845, that beinii: the time of 
which he speaks, I can only say that the weight of 
evidence is against him. Doubtless both British and 
Americans deemed it shameful that any part of the 
Northwest Coast should be given up to the other, 
doubtless both would take and hold all territory pos- 
sible, without actual war ; but when it came to fighting 
for the gravelly plains of the Cowlitz and the rolling 
bunch-grass prairies of eastern Washington, they did 
not think it worth the while. 

Early in 184G McKay was sent to California to as- 
certain what arrangements might be made for obtain- 
ing certain supplies nearer than England, in case the 
farming establishments on the Columbia and the Cow- 
litz should be given up to the United States. 

There were thoughts in England that perhaps before 
long settlement by British subjects would begin in Brit- 
ish Columbia ; for about this time we find S. Cunard 
suggesting to the admiralty, that in granting lands on 
Vancouver Island the crown might as well reserve to its 
own use the coal-mines already pregnant with promise. 

Meanwhile such of the company's men as could be 
spared from the business of the fort, as well as all 
natives desirous of taking on civilization, were kept 
at work clearing^ lands and establishino^ farms. The 
savages were soon convinced that in this instance em- 
phatically M'isdom's ways were peace; so they turned 
in and helped the white men end the men half white 
to work, bccomino- g-ood bullock-drivers, and better 
ploughmen tlian the Canadians cr Kanakas, to whom, 
nevertheless, they gave freely of their women to wife, 
all which tended to promote good behavior among the 
variegated retainers of the commercial despots. The 
natives were treated with strict fairness, being paid as 
well as other laborers when they worked as M'ell. 
Their wages were from £17 to £25 per annum. 



128 CAMOSUN, ALBERT, VICTORIA. 

Within three years after the beginning of the fort 
there were under cultivation one hundred and sixty 
acres, on which were grown wheat, oats, potatoes, 
carrots, turnips, and other vegetables, with a con- 
stantly increasing conversion of wild lands. There 
was a dairy furnishing an abundant supply of milk, 
which took the place, in a great measure, of beer, wine, 
and spirits as a beverage. 

By the end of 1847 there were at this place two 
dairies, each having seventy cows, which were milked 
twice a day, the milk yielding seventy pounds of butter 
to the cow each season. Thus the wild hunters, fish- 
ermen, and fighters were fast becoming farmers and 
dairymen 

In this year of 1847, on the flat where now run 
the most prominent business streets, where stand 
the banks, the post-office, and the principal business 
houses, three hundred acres were cleared and under 
cultivation. The land was rich, producing fine pease 
and potatoes, and of wheat forty bushels to the 
acre, the most of which produce was sent to Sitka. 
Two Russian vessels came this year, and carried away 
from Victoria Harbor over five thousand bushels of 
wheat, beside beef and mutton, payment for the 
same being made with bills of exchange on St Peters- 
burg. Fort Langley likewise contributed to the lad- 
ing of these two ships, the produce being brought 
thence to Victoria Harbor in small boats. Up to 
the time of the bargain with the Russian American 
Fur Company, nothing like a foreign commerce in 
any articles, other than those obtained in the regular 
fur traffic, was ever attempted on the Northwest 
Coast. Although as a whaling depot the establish- 
ment at Victoria Harbor was attended with insignifi- 
cant success, yet, as the Venice of the northern wilds, 
the home anchorage of the only steamer that had 
ever puffed upon those waters, and the chief commer- 
cial port in British Pacific America of the Russian 
American fur-traders, it fa;;t budded into promise. 



\^SIT OF THE 'HER.VLD.' 129 

Two or three years later saw changes yet greater — 
the "seeds of a city, with new goods and new jargons, 
with a cash trade for goods, as well as a fur-trade, 
where merchandise was sold for money by those 
who had hitherto scarcely known a dollar from a 
ducat. 

While the fur-traders were delighted over any- 
thing which broke the dead monotony of their Vivef- 
a-nd were specially pleased by the opportunity to en 
tertain their countrymen, they were not always grati- 
fied with the result. Leading, as they did, isolated and 
simple lives, and accustomed to indulge only in plain 
words and honest purposes, they were often treated 
somewhat cavalierly by their visitors, while using the 
best means at command for their comfort and amuse' 
ment. And when once the guests had turned theii 
back upon the place, they did not hesitate to speak 
their minds. Thus Seemann, writing for the officers 
of the Herald, says : 

" There being no competition, the company has it 
all its own way; it does not profess to supply the 
public; indeed, although it does not object to sell to 
people situated as we were, yet the stores are for the 
trade in furs, to supply the native hunters with the 
goods which the}' most value, as also for the use of its 
own dependents, who, receiving little pay, are usually 
in debt to the company, and are therefore much in its 
power. In fact, the people employed are rarely those 
to whom returning home is an object; they have 
mostly been taken from poverty, and have at all 
events food and clothing. The work is hard, but 
with health and strength this is a blessing rather than 
otherwise. Want of white women appears to be the 
drawback to this prospect of success, and generally 
leads to connections with the natives, from which 
spring half-castes, who from the specimens we saw 
appear to inherit the vices of both races ; they are 
active and shrewd, but violent and coarse, while 
neither their education nor conduct admits them into- 

Hist. Bkit. Col. 9 



130 CAMOSUN, ALBERT, VICTORIA 

the society of the European settlers. This must en- 
gender a bad state of feehng, and might be remedied 
by taking more pains with the education and training 
of these hardy and enterprising, yet more than half- 
brutahzed, people. We felt quite disgusted in seeing 
one of these half-castes, bearing as good a name as 
any in Scotland, beating and kicking a score of Indians 
out of the fort with as little compunction as if they 
had been dogs, scorning them as natives, though his 
mother had been taken from one of their tribe, and 
had been no more educated than they were." 

Thus slowly toward a more illustrious destiny pro- 
ceeded affairs at Fort Victoria. Thougfh no dano-er 
Avas apprehended from the natives, watch was usually 
kept at night inside the pickets, where the hourly 
cry of "All is well!" told the conscious sleepers that 
the sentinel was on duty;^ for, failing to hear the 
cry, the sleepers would awake. Thus silently aroused 
one night while on a professional visit to this post, 
Douglas caught a Kanaka watchman endeavoring to 
unlock the door of the storehouse, probably for rum, 
but surely for no good purpose. Next morning he 
was tied to a tree and given three dozen lashes, and 
sent to work, nevermore to be trusted. 

The natural advantages of this locality were not 
slow to be recognized, even by the aboriginals. Al- 
though each fort had its district,^ and the inhabitants 
of each district were expected to trade at their own 
post, yet so much more convenient was Victoria to 
many points, and so much better was the stock of 
goods kept there, that tne trade of this station rapidly 
increased beyond its legitimate dependencies. 

''This upon the authority of William John Macdonalcl, senator, who was 
with the company eight years. B. C. Sketches, MS., 30. 

® For example, Nisqually extended from the Chehalis River to Whidbey 
Island; Langley from Whidbey Island to Milbank Sound; IMcLoughlin from 
Milbank Sound to the Sheena River; and Simpson from Skeena River to the 
Alaskan boundary. After McLoughlin was abandoned, the territory formerly 
occupied by that post was covered by the neighboring establishments. Fin- 
laysoiis Hist. V. L, MS., 87. 



PAUL IvANE. 131 

Artists and ethnologists are common enough now 
on the Northwest Coast, but it was not so when in 
1846 Paul Kane appeared in these parts, having come 
over from Canada with portfolio, paint-box, and gun 
as his sole companions. The party to which he had 
attached himself in crossing the mountains, consisted 
of ]\Ir Lane and wife, Mr Charles, then a clerk in the 
service appointed to a western post, Mr McGillivray, 
and sixteen men. 

Douo-las and Osfden then reisjned at Fort Van- 
couver with ten clerks and two hundred men. A 
policeman in the form of her majesty's ship Modeste 
was stationed in the river before the fort. At Oregon 
City Kane met McKinlay, who told him his Walla 
Walla gunpowder story, and also another describing 
how he recovered some stolen tobacco when stationed 
in New Caledonia. He had but three pounds, and 
its loss was serious. Summoning all the Indians about 
the fort, he ordered each there present to place to his 
mouth the muzzle of his gun, and then to blow in it. 
None who were innocent would be harmed, but the 
head of him who was guilty of the theft would be 
blown to atoms. Setting the example himself, the 
one nearest him blew into his gun, and the next, and 
so on until all had done so except one man, who when 
it came his turn, hung his head, confessed his crime, 
and restored the stolen property. 

After sufficiently studying the missionaries and 
Chinooks, Kane proceeded by way of Nisqually to 
Fort Victoria, where he was kindly welcomed by Mr 
Finlayson. After about a year upon the coast Kane 
returned and wrote a very readable book.'' 

The farms and gardens in the vicinity of Fort 
Victoria were radiant. Besides grain and vegetables, 
there were fruits and flowers in abundance, all healthy 
but not heavy, for it could scarcely be said that the 
soil had ever yet been fairly ploughed, but only 

' Wanderings of an Artist amono the Indians of North America, from 
Canada to Vancouver's Island and Oregon, through the Hudson s Bay Com- 
jiani/s Tfrritory and back again. With a map aiiJ colored illustrations. 



132 CAMOSXm, ALBERT, VICTORIA. 

scratched. While trading in furs, attention was hke- 
wise directed to fisheries, Eraser River now exporting 
annually from one to two thousand barrels of salted 
salmon. 

When Paul Kane was there making: his sketchinof 
excursions in the neighborhood, finding clover abun- 
dant he supposed it "to have sprung from accidental 
seeds which had fallen from packages of goods brought 
from England, many of which are made up in hay." 
Not a very brilliant supposition; for so correct an 
artist, not to say naturalist, should know wild from 
tame clover without supposing. 

''The interior of the islancl," Kane continues, ''has 
not been explored to any extent except by the Indians, 
who represent it as badly supplied with water in the 
summer, and the water obtained from a well dug at 
the fort was found to be too brackish for use. The ap- 
pearance of the interior, when seen from the coast, is 
rocky and mountainous, evidently volcanic ; the trees 
are large, principally oak and pine. The timbers of 
a vessel of some magnitude were being got out. The 
establishment is very large, and must eventually be- 
come the great depot for the business of the company. 
They had ten white men and forty Indians engaged 
in building new stores and warehouses." 

One day, while sketching not far distant from the 
fort, Kane discovered, stretched naked on the rocks, 
the body of a young female slave slain and thrown 
to the vultures by her mistress. The artist recognized 
the victim as a comely maiden whom he had seen a 
few days before in perfect health. Notifying Einlay- 
son, the two visited the lodge of the mistress, who 
was accused of the murder. 

"Of course I killed her. Why should I not? She 
was my slave," replied the woman. 

" She was far better than you," replied Einlayson. 

'What!" exclaimed the female, now furious with 

rage, "I, the daughter of a chief, no better than a 

slave!" and wrapping herself in her filthy dignity, 



JAMES BAY. 133 

she stalked from their presence, and a few days 
thereafter moved from that locaHty. Almost as in- 
human in the treatment of her slave as are civilized 
matrons in their treatment of outcasts, she was almost 
as indignant as they when reproved by the voice of 
humanity. 

Long after settlement set in, long after the town 
was laid out and city -building begun, tlie fort was the 
chief feature of the place. " Upon my first visit to 
Victoria in 1849," says Mayne, **a small dairy at the 
head of James Bay was the only building standing 
outside the fort pickets, which are now demolished. 
But shortly after, upon Mr Douglas' arrival, he built 
himself a house on the south side of James Bay; and Mr 
Work, another chief factor of the company, arriving 
a little later, erected another in Rock Bay, above the 
bridge. These formed the nucleus of a little group of 
buildings, which rose about and between them so 
slowly that even in 1857 there was but one small 
wharf on the harbour's edge." 

At the time of his arrival in April 1861, Good ob- 
serves: "The old fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
together with several old buildings, all surrounded 
with a strong picket palisade, still remained."^ 

* Material for this part of British Columbia history is meagre. Tlie truth 
is, there was little going on at the time at Fort Victoria, to 'which this 
chapter is chietly devoted, except the usual routine at such establishments. 
!My authorities are, Finlai/sons Hint. V. I., MS., 25, 32-41; Andersons Hist. 
Northirest Coast, ]\1S., 110-12; McKay's Eec, MS., 2-5; JJowjlas" Private 
Journal, MS., passim; Cooper's Maratime Matters, MS., 1-2; MrLonyhlin's 
Private Papers, MS., ser. ii., 13; Brit. Col. SMches, MS., 21-2, 32-3; Tod's 
Xew Caledonia, MS., 21-3; McKinlay's Nar., :MS., 8; Paul Kane's Wander- 
iwjs, 209; Mayne's B. C, 30; Marysville Cal. Appeal, Sept. 17, 1S75; Oreijon 
Spectator, Nov. 26, 1846; Sandwirh Island JVeics, ii. 23; Howison's liept., 36; 
HazUtt's B. C, 215-10; London Times, Aug. 27, 1858; House Commons Rept., 
H. B. Co. Affairs, 1857, 208, 290; Good's B. C, MS., 2; Findlay's Direct., i. 
417-19; Wmldinrjton's Eraser Riv. Mines, 31; Macfie's V. I. and B. C, 58. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

1846. 

EL4.ML00P — The Old Fort and the New — The Romance of Fur-trading — 
The Lordly Aboriginal and his Home — John Tod, King of KiM- 
Loop — His Physique and Character — Lolo, a Ruler among the 
Shushwaps — Who and What He was — His Kingdom for a Horse — 
Annual Salmon Expedition to the Fraser — Information of the 
Conspiracy — Lolo Retires from before his Friends — Tod to the 
Rescue — One Man against Three Hundred — Small -pox as a 
Weapon — A Signal Victory — Chief Nicola Measures Wits with 
Mr Tod — ^And is Found Wanting. 

John Tod reigned at Kamloop. Jolin Tod was a 
chief trader in the service of the Honorable Hudson's 
Bay Company, and Fort Kamloop was the capital of 
the Thompson River district bordering on New Cale- 
donia. The establishment was one of the oldest in 
all the Oregon or Northwest Coast region, dating 
back to the days of the dashing Northwest Company, 
when with posts planted side by side, the two great 
rival associations fought for the favor of the savage, 
and for the skins of his wild beasts. 

There were two forts which bore this name, the 
old and the new, both situated at the junction of the 
two great branches of Thompson River with the 
eastern end of Kamloop Lake, one on the north side 
and the other on the south. Old Fort Kamloop was 
first called Fort Thompson, having been begun by 
David Thompson, astronomer of the Northwest Com- 
pany, on his overland journey from Montreal to As- 
toria, by way of Yellowhead Pass in 1810. 

Next upon the ground, after Thompson, was Alex- 

(134) 



BLACK AND DOUGLAS. 135 

ander Ross, who in 1812 conducted operations there 
on behalf of Aster's Pacific Fur Company. After the 
coalition of the Northwest and the Hudson's Bay 
companies in 1821, we find the fur veteran John 
McLeod in charge of the Thompson River district, 
from 1822 to 182G. Ermatinger presided there in 
1828, when Sir George Simpson, the illustrious front 
of the fur traffic in British America, dropped in upon 
the fort and harangued the assembled redskins, be- 
seeching them to be honest, temperate, frugal, to love 
their friends the fur-traders, and above all to bring 
in piles of peltries, and receive therefor the useful 
and magnificent trinkets which the honorable adven- 
turers of England trading into Hudson Bay had 
been at so much cost and pains to bring them from 
so far; after which pretty piece of artless subtlety the 
governor continued his perilous descent of Eraser 
River. 

A thousand thrilling and romantic associations 
hang round the place. It was there the company's 
officer in command, Samuel Black, challenged his 
brother Scot and guest, David Douglas, the wander- 
ing botanist, to fight a duel, because the blunt visitor 
one night, while over his rum and dried salmon, had 
stigmatized the honorable fur-traders as not possess- 
ing a soul above a beaver-skin. But the enthusi- 
astic pupil of Hooker preferred to figlit another day, 
and so took his departure next morning unharmed, 
but only to meet his death shortly after by falling 
into a pit at the Hawaiian Islands while homeward 
bound. Likewise may we say, poor Black 1 For it 
was but a short time after this chivalrous display of 
fidelity to his company, that is to say, during the 
winter of 1841-2, while residing at the old fort, that 
he was cruelly assassinated by the nephew of a 
friendly neighboring chief, named Wanquille, for 
having charmed his uncle's life away. 

It was Black's successor who built the new fort 
on the opposite side of the river. The new estab- 



136 THE SHUSHWAP COXSPIRACY. 

lisliment differed little from the later built fortresses 
of the fur company; some seven houses, consisting 
of stores, dwellings, and shops, were enclosed in pali- 
sades fifteen feet in height, with gates on two sides, 
and bastions at two opposite angles. To the older 
establishment, beside the compact and palisaded block- 
house, were attached stockades for animals; for here 
hundreds of fine horses were yearly bred for the 
transport service, which formerly was by boats from 
Fort Vancouver to Okanagan, and thence by horses, 
in bands of two or three hundred, to Kamloop and 
Fort Alexandria, on Fraser River, whence to Fort 
St James canoes were again employed. It was 
a sight never hereafter to be repeated, two hun- 
dred horses laden with rich peltries, winding down 
the mountains, through rugged passes and over the 
waving plain, on toward the smoother highways of 
commerce, along which are interchanged the varied 
comforts of the world. Later, the route of the semi- 
annual brigade from the districts of New Caledonia, 
Thompson River, Okanagan, and the Columbia, was 
from Kamloop to Fort Hope on the Fraser, and 
thence by boat to Langley and Fort Victoria on 
Vancouver Island, now rapidly becommg the metro- 
politan post of British Columbia. Seven tribes 
traded at this post when it was first built, namely 
the gentle Atnah, the lively Kootenai, the chivalrous 
Okanagan, the surly Similkameen, the fierce, vin- 
dictive Teet,the treacherous Nicoutamuch, besides the 
always hospitable and friendly Kamloop. All these 
nations were members of the family Shushwap. These, 
however, were not all regular visitors, nor permanent 
in their patronage. The simple-minded and ingen- 
uous savage knew every trick of the trade, and where 
opposition was, there were gathered his peltries. 

The rough rolling surface of the Kamloop-Shushwap 
plateau with its frequent depressions, is for the most 
part open and grassy, w4th occasional patches of scat- 
tering trees thickening at -still wider intervals into 



THE FRASEE HEREABOUT. 



137 



forests, and all made bright and eye-compelling by 
an open sky and silvery waters, here dancing in 
river-beds, and there in mirroring lakes softly and 
silently bringing down heaven. The summers are 
hot, the winters cold; the early spring enrobes both 
plain and mountain in grass and flowers, and autumn 
spreads before the phlegmatic aboriginal a bounteous 
supply of food. Thompson River is sometimes seen 




The Shushwap Country. 

elbowing its way among the rocks, but more frequently 
it presents itself glittering between rich green borders 
of alder and willow. Between Fort Kamloop and 
the Papayou, or the Fountain we will say, on Fraser 
River, are light sandy plains, with here and there a 
gorge or valley running parallel with the river, a rocky 
cliff, bounding a, valley covered with long grass, clumps 



138 THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

of bushes and trees, all growing wilder and more pro- 
nounced as the rugged chasm of the Fraser is ap- 
proached. Trap and basalt bluffs occasionally reac]i 
over the border of the lake into which the rivei' 
broadens on leaving the fort, the plateau rising behind 
in terraces. Everywhere the scenery is bold and 
varied, and the heart of man strug^afles ever outward 
to meet it. And as many others before and since 
have there ruled, John Tod reigned at Kamloop. 
His kingdom was not extensive except in so far as 
space was concerned. All above and below was his; 
and on either side, surely as far into the wilderness 
as he should choose to go. His subjects vere not 
numerous, if we deduct the savages, the bears, and 
the beavers; there were with him at the fort during 
this spring of 1846, besides the dusky mother of his 
three dusky little ones, only half a dozen men and a 
half-breed boy. 

John Tod was not a handsome man; neither was 
he learned, nor polished, nor to any considerable extent 
durably refined or remodelled by civilization. He was 
one of some two thousand Scotchmen, who, coming into 
America and turning themselves out into j^rimitive 
pastures, fell back somewhat upon the early ways of 
mankind, and became what in the wilds of the North- 
west might be called European savages. Tall, bony, 
and wiry, he did not, like McLoughlin and Douglas, 
present a physique at once powerful and commanding; 
yet when in the administration of fur-trading justice 
his right arm was driven down from the shoulder by 
righteous wrath and with spasmodic force, the red 
nobles of his suzerainty fell before it like tenjDins. 
There was a superstition abroad among the savages 
that they could not kill him. Had he not been hunted, 
starved, cut at, and shot at by warriors whose arm 
and cunning had never hitherto failed them ? Upon 
a small neck rising from sloping slioulders Avas set 
a head narrow and high, which a half-century of con- 
stant exposure to the rigors of a New Caledonian 



JOHN TOD. 139 

climate had warped a little, and made otherwise awry. 
The light brown hair was not long, falling over the 
shoulders in carefully greased waves or curls, so com- 
monly seen among the free trappers on frontiers; nor 
was it short like a prize-fighter's; it was of medium 
length, somewhat stiff, in places matted, and on the 
whole tolerably well kept in dishevelled Hudson's 
Bay respectability. Above a broad, straight Scotch 
nose, and high cheek-b.ones, were glittering gray eyes, 
which flashed perpetual fun and intelligence. And 
the mouth! Support me, O my muse! What an 
opening for gin and eloquence ! Had the mouth been 
small, the mighty brain above it would have burst; as 
it was, the stream of communication once set flow- 
ing, and every limb and fibre of the body talked, the 
blazing eyes, the electrified hair, and the well-poised 
tongue all dancing attendance. It was a trick the 
fur-traders early fell into, that of copying from sav- 
agism its aids to declamation. Tod could no more tell 
his story seated in a chair than he could fly to Jupiter 
while chained to the rock of Gibraltar ; arms, legs, 
and vertebra3 were all brought into requisition, while 
high-hued information, bombed with broad oaths, burst 
from his breast like lava from Etna. 

But although among earth's pretty ones, among 
the starched and veneered of broadways and boule- 
vards, his angular contour and disjointed gait jDresented 
anything but an imposing appearance, yet John Tod 
was built a man from the ground upward, and those 
with eyes might see in him a king, ay, one every inch 
a king. 

Xotable now and for many years afterward through- 
out these parts was a whitewashed savage, a Shush wap, 
likewise a king in his wa}", christened by the company 
St Paul, and by the Catholic priests Jean Baptiste 
Lolo. The Shushwaps frequented Kamloop almost 
as much as they did the lake that bears their name. 
Their passion was finery ; they loved it more than liquor. 
Indeed, before the advent of the miners, beside whose 



140 THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

mud-colored clothes the bright vestures of the natives 
shone like the rainbow on a thunder-laden sky, the 
interior tribes did not wallow in drunkenness like their 
relatives along the coast, but rather affected horses, 
and a wardrobe in which were conspicuous caps with 
gay ribbons, scarlet leggings, and red sashes, and for 
the women bright-colored skirts, and gaudy handker- 
chiefs for the head. 

Although Lolo had been thus doubly baptized, he 
was not yet wholly clean. There was much of the 
aboriginal Adam still in him ; yet he was always ready 
to serve the god of the fur company, or of the mis- 
sionaries, whenever he could make it pay ; everything 
being equal, however, he preferred his own. In phy- 
sique he M^as large, with fine bold features, a Roman 
nose with dilated nostrils being prominent. His 
black eyes displayed a melancholy cunning rather 
than ferocity, though at times they were restless 
and piercing. 

His permanent dwelling was a substantial hut 
situated near the old fort, and in which he lived and 
reared his family and ruled his nation long after civil- 
ization had filled the Kamloop Plains with farmers. 
His authority among his people was absolute; even 
after old age and sickness had sent him permanently 
to his bed, the naked sword and loaded gun beneath 
his pillow, or ever within his reach, were a terror to 
the most distant member of his tribe. He was a man 
of intellect and nerve as well as of personal prowess. 
The company's trade jargon did not satisfy him in his 
intercourse witli white men, and so he learned Cana- 
dian French, which he spoke fluently in later life. 
Some time after the events recorded in this chapter, 
believing something at fault about his knee-joint, 
thinking perhaps it needed scraping, and having little 
faith in medicine-men, red or white, little by little as 
he could bear it, with his own hand he cut the flesh 
away, bored through the bone, and kept open for a 
time the wound by forcing water through it. He was 



LOLO. 141 

a great lover of horses, and usually kept a score or 
two for his own use. 

Lolo's clays were not few, nor did his name lack 
renown; for twenty years before Tod's time he had 
lived there on friendly terms with the fur-traders, 
and for a dozen years thereafter his rusty old body 
still enjoyed the blessings of sunlight. To the honor 
of the Hudson's Bay Company's officers stationed at 
Kamloop, be it said that in his old age they treated 
Lolo not alone with kindness, but with respect. A. 
dutiful son to an aged parent could not have been 
more considerate than w'as McLean in ministering to 
the whims and desires of this ancient savage. And 
as for fame — who, from the Rocky Mountains to the 
sea, did not know of Lolo ? 

Now, in this year 1846 the two kings, the white 
and the red, were in their prime ; Tod was domineer- 
ing and reckless, not knowing the name of fear, and 
Lolo was not so wealthy in women and horses as 
afterward. 

One horse in particular, the best of a band of 
three hundred belonging to the fort, Lolo had long 
coveted. He would give anything for that horse, en- 
dure any hardship, kill any person. Tod w^as equally 
oljstinate in his refusal to part with it; the savage 
should not have the horse; second best must suffice 
the ruler of redskins. 

It was the custom every spring or summer to send 
a party from Kamloop to the Popayou, seventy-six 
miles distant on Fraser River, near wliat was later 
known as the Fountain, to procure for the year's 
subsistence salmon there caught and cured by the 
natives. It had been agreed this year that Lolo 
should lead the party for the mutual benefit of the 
two sovereignties. 

''Are your men ready?" asked Tod one day. 

"They are ready," replied Lolo. 

"Have the horses been driven in and hobbled?" 

"Yes." 



142 TKE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

'*The men will leave day after to-morrow, before 
daylight." 

''Very good." 

The second night after the departure of the expe- 
dition, just as the chief trader was about retiring, a 
knock was heard at the door. Besides himself and 
family and the half-breed boy, there was not a soul 
about the place ; every man was with the expedition, 
and as the country was at peace, even the fort gates 
were not fastened at night. 

"Come in," exclaimed Tod. 

Slowly the door opens a few inches until the black 
eyes of Lolo were seen glistening at the aperture. 
Though amazed beyond measure, and fearful lest some 
misfortune had happened to the party, Tod was Indian 
enough never to be thrown so far out of balance as 
to manifest surprise at anything. Pie continued to 
busy himself as if the unwelcome apparition at the 
door was but part of his preparations for bed. Never- 
theless, waves of unquietness began to roll over his 
breast, ready to break out in wrath or subside in 
resignation, as the case might require, for Tod was 
not a patient man, nor slow of speech, nor soft of 
words; and for all the rascally redskins this side 
of perdition he would not long remain the savage stoic. 
But upon occasion, the Gaelic lion could play the lamb, 
provided the period of endurance were reasonable. 

Left to himself, the Shushwap chief pushed open 
the door and slowly entered. For several minutes he 
stood bolt upright in the middle of the room, until at 
length Tod motioned him to a seat beside the table, 
and shoved toward him pipe and tobacco. 

"Your family will be glad to see you," Tod finally 
remarked, wondering more than ever what had hap- 
pened to the party, and why he had returned, and 
cursing in his heart the savage conventionalism which 
debased a man from any manifestion of curiosity. 

"The sorrel horse I spoke to you about," replied 



THAT SORREL HORSE. 143 

the cliief. "I should hke to have that horse, ]Mr 
Tod." 

" The river has risen a Uttle since yesterday," ob- 
served Tod. 

"For twenty j^ears I have followed the fortunes of 
the Hudson's Bay Company," continued Lolo. "I 
have shared my store of food with them, warned tlieni 
of dangers, attended them in perils, and never before 
have I been denied a request." 

"Fill your pipe," said Tod. 

"Alasl my wives and little ones," still sighed the 
savao^e. "Thoucyh I am old and not afraid to die, 
they are young and helpless ; what would become of 
them should this evil befall ; where will they go ? " 

"What the devil is the matter?" now blurted Tod, 
thrown suddenly back by Lolo's gibberish from high 
forest reticence to the conventional speech of Chris- 
tendom. " Who talks of dying ? Where are the men ? 
Why have you returned ? Speak !" 

"Matter enough," answered the cliief, who now 
changed his tone from that of whining lament to one 
of surl}^ concern. " When near our destination we met 
a young chief of the Atnahs, wdio, drawing me aside, 
informed me that his father, who is a friend of mine, 
had entered into a conspiracy with the chiefs of sev- 
eral other Shushwap tribes for the extermination of 
the fur-traders. They had agreed to open hostilities 
by the capture of the annual Kamloop party just as 
it reached the Fraser; and this warning was given 
me that I might save myself and mine." 

"Where are the men and horses?" 

" I hid them as well as I could behind some bushes, 
a little off the trail, telling them that I M-as going to 
hunt a better camping-ground, and to let the animals 
graze there until I returned. I said nothing about 
the conspiracy, knowing that the attack would not be 
made until the party reached the river, and that my 
men would not remain should they know of it. Time 
was when I would not have turned mv back upon 



144 THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

such a threat, but my friendship and faithful services 
are no hunger valued." 

"Well, go to your family now, and let me think 
about it ; " and so the chief departed. 

Was it true, or was it a trick on the part of Lolo 
to get the horse ? Tod was greatly puzzled. There 
had never been trouble with the natives in this vicinity ; 
there was now no provocation that he knew of And 
yet it was a long ride for so useless a question. Of 
course if there was danger of an attack the chief 
should not have left the party. As he thought it 
over, the trader's suspicions increased. 

While deep in these considerations as to what was 
best for him to do, Mr Tod saw the door again move 
on its hinges, and Lolo's head thrust in at the open- 
ing. "Will you not let me have the horse, Mr 
Tod?" 

"No, damn you! go home; and if you say horse to 
me again I'll break every bone in your body." For 
the trader's jDatience had finally forsaken him. He 
was now almost sure that Lolo's only object was to 
get the horse, and that the conspiracy story was 
false; nevertheless, the party must be looked after 
immediately. How should he manage if? His peo- 
ple were all absent; there was not a white man at 
that moment within seventy miles of him. For him- 
self, his family, or anything about the fort, the chief 
trader did not fear the Shushwap chief. As Lolo 
himself had said, he had been true to the company 
for twenty years. The sorrel horse he longed for 
with all a child's intensity ; but often it happened to 
be necessary to deny the childish covetings of the 
aboriginal, else his desires would run away with him, 
and there would be no living with him. Had not 
Tod known and trusted Lolo implicitly he would not 
at this juncture have spoken sharply to him as he told 
him to go home. It was not a breach of etiquette, 
however, for a white chief to speak rudely or even to 
cuff or kick a red chief; but woe to the white man of 



A DESPERATE RESOLVE. 145 

low degree, the laborer, the voyageur, who insulted 
a native nobleman. A kinor miHit bear a kin^^'s atlront; 
not so a slave's. 

At the seat of war, if war was to be, the position 
of Lolo would be entirely different. It must be re- 
membered that the conspirators were, likewise with 
Lolo, members of the Shush wap family. The chiefs 
proposing to unite for the taking of Kamloop were 
the heads of the several divisions of one family. Lolo 
would be importuned, and perhaps in some degree 
influenced against his old friends. Even here, so 
strong was his faith in him. Tod did not fear absolute 
treacliery. But after mature reflection he concluded 
that he would rather undertake the management of 
affairs without the presence of Lolo than with it. The 
chief trader had his own way for the treatment of 
such cases — a way always original and generally ef- 
fectual. 

Lolo was thunderstruck at the bold tone in which 
Tod had denied his last request for the horse. The 
Indian well knew of the truth of the conspiracy. He 
knew, or at least he supposed, his fidelity and services 
would be of the first importance to the trader, i olated 
as he was, and alone in the midst of numerous organ- 
ized and blood-thirsty enemies. Surely the horse would 
not be a feather's weight to him now, reasoned Lolo, 
when all the horses, the fort, and the property in it, 
wife and children, and life itself — for the chief well 
knew the trader would not run away from danger, 
and that if he did not he would certainly be killed — 
were in such jeopardy. Therefore was he confounded 
at Tod's rude and violent denial. 

Before the door had closed on the retreating form 
of the savage, almost before the profane words of 
refusal were out of his mouth, the trader had made 
up his mind what to do. Calling the half-breed boy, 
he ordered him to saddle two of the fleetest horses in 
the corral. In as few words as possible he explained 
the situation to his wife. Then he wrote a general 

Hist. Brit. Col. lo 



143 THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

statement of the case for head-quarters at Victoria in 
case Jie should never return. And shortly after mid- 
night, while Lolo was asleep at home, the chief trader 
and his hoy were on the trail for Fraser Kiver, gallop- 
ing over the ground as fast as their horses could carry 
them. 

Meanwhile the mind of the chief trader was no less 
active than his body. Here was a field for the dis- 
play of his brightest genius. By slow degrees and 
cool consideration he had arrived at the conclusion 
that Lolo had not deceived him in regard to the con- 
spiracy. He knew the Indian character thoroughly; 
nor w^as the chief's fresh plea for the horse so wholly 
out of place in such an emergency as he had at first 
regarded it. At all events, the safer way, the only 
safe way, was to act as though the report was true. 

He found no difficulty in reacliing his men by noon. 
They were surprised to see him, had heard nothing of 
the threatened attack, nor did he see fit at once to 
enlighten them. He merely gave orders to prepare 
to move forward early the next morning. The men 
were accustomed to implicit obedience. They could 
not understand why their leader should bo suddenly 
so solicitous as to the condition of their arms and the 
supply of ammunition, seeing no danger portending. 
But it was not their province to question. 

By sunrise the party was on the trail, moving at 
the usual pace toward the Fraser. Some distance in 
advance was Tod, alone; he had told his men to keep 
three hundred yards behind him, to march when he 
marched, and stop when he stopped. By nine o'clock 
they approached a small open plain enclosed in thick 
brushwood and bordering on the river. Tod mo- 
tioned his men to halt while he rode slowly forward 
into the open space, apparently careless and uncon- 
cerned as usual, but with a glance which scrutinized 
Avith intense interest every rock and shrub around the 
arena. Presently his eye caught unmistakable signs 
of opposition. 



INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH. 147 

Behind the bushes on the northern side of the 
opening, and close to the river, he saw a large band 
of armed and painted savages. No women or children 
were among them, which circumstance, beyond perad- 
venturc, signified mischief Already they had dis- 
covered him, and were moving about excitedly. They 
were kilted up for fight ; and now they brandished 
their knives and guns threateningly. Lolo was right; 
and the chief trader vowed that if he survived that 
day the chief should have the horse. 

But what was he to do? He had not ten men, all 
told, Canadians and Indians, and here were three 
hundred arrayed against him. Nor were they a foe 
to be despised, these powerful and active Shushwaps, 
every one of whom could handle the rifle as well as 
any white man. How was he to cope with them ? 
Brute force was certainly out of the question; brute 
courage here was powerless. And if intellect was to 
be king, how was white cunning to circumvent the red ? 

Then arose the mind of John Tod in the power of 
its might. 

The men, with the horses in the rear, had by this 
time approached the opening, had seen the savages, 
and had witnessed their warlike demonstrations. They 
know now why their leader had so unexpectedly ap- 
peared among them, and had been so singularly pre- 
occupied the night before. Still with his tace toward 
the enemy, though he had now stopped his horse. Tod 
motioned one of his party, George Simpson by name, 
to attend him. 

"George," said he, as the Canadian came up, "fall 
back quietly with the horses, and if things go wrong 
with me, make the best of your way back to the fort. 
Go!" 

The brave fellow hesitated a moment to leave his 
leader alone in such peril. 

"Damn you, go!" shouted Tod, in a voice which 
rang through the woods, and made to rattle in their 
hands the weapons of the startled savages. 



148 THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

And now to business. 

It is a magnificent animal that Tod bestrides, a 
white mare, clean of limb, with flowing mane and 
tail, a proud stepper, and strong and swift withal. 
The enemy, emerging from the forest, gather on and 
round a low knoll at the edge of the opening, and 
there stand watching intently the fur-trader's every 
movement. The battle begins; it is one man against 
three hundred. There is little use for the usual 
death -dealing machinery in such a contest as this. 
Turning full front upon the glowering savages, Tod 
put spurs to his horse; and as he rushes on toward 
them, they raise their guns. The horseman does not 
flinch nor slacken s-peed; but quickly drawing sword 
and pistol, he holds them aloft in one hand, and with 
the other lifts high his gun above his head. For an 
instant only the murderous trinkets flash the sun's 
light into the eyes of the astonished multitude; then 
the rider hurls them all aheap upon the plain. Seiz- 
ing the rein which hitherto had lain neglected, the 
rider next turns his attention to feats of horseman- 
ship. With head erect, eyes flashing, and mane flow- 
ing, the white mare prances to the right, then to the 
left, and after describing^ a half-circle, charges into 
their very midst. 

Very strange, no doubt, and very silly, a cavalry 
captain would say. Why did they not kill him ? So, 
indeed, the cavalry captain would have been killed, 
and all his men. Why did not those fire who raised 
their guns ? Curiosity. Thus the interested antelope 
will stand and be shot. They wished to see what the 
white man would do next. Hundreds they had killed 
before, and could achieve a butcher}^ any day. But 
they could not have every day an honorable chief 
trader upon his best mettle before them for their 
amusement. Well was it that Tod understood his 
role, and had the coolness and courage to play it, for 
the least mistake was death. 

There sat the smiling Scotchman upon his panting 



OH, WORSHIPFUL TOD. 149 

white steed, amidst the thickest of them. Tod always 
smiled in joy and in sorrow, and his smile was enor- 
mous. His angry smile was more fearful than his 
oaths; the savages felt this, though they could not 
anatyze the sentiment. And now they saw his smile 
was angry, though he spoke them fair; they beo-an to 
be afraid, though they knew not wh}^; but they would 
kill him presently. 

''What is all this?" demanded the chief trader. 
"What is it that you wish to do?" 

"We want to see Lolo," they replied. "Where is 
Lolo? Why came you here?" 

"Ah ! then you have not heard the news. Lolo is 
at home. Poor fellow!" 

"News! What news? No, we have heard no 
news," they cried, again forgetting their bloody pur- 
pose, ingulfed in curiosity. 

"I am sorry for you, my friends." And now his 
smile on the outside was, oh! so sad, thougli inwardly 
lined by the softest, merriest chuckle. "The small- 
pox is upon us; the terrible, terrible small-pox. It 
was brought from Walla Walla by an Okanagan." 

They well knew what the small-pox was, and that 
it raged at Walla Walla and on the lower Columbia. 
Worse than death they feared the scourge ; the bare 
idea of it was horrible to them. They knew, likewise, 
of Whitman's massacre, and the divine punishment 
that had so quickly followed the offenders. 

"Ay, the dreaded disease is here," continued Tod, 
in deep, sepulchral tones. "That is why I am come. 
I came to tell you. I came to save you. You are my 
friends, my brothers. You bring me furs. I give 3'ou 
blankets and guns wherewith to get food for your 
families, and I love you. But you must not come to 
Kamloop until I give you notice; else you will die. 
See, I have brought you medicine, for I would not 
see you lying scattered on the bank like 3-onder salmon, 
rotting, rotting ; ah ! indeed, I would not." 

Where now is tlie battle; who the victor? Won 



150 THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

by a trick; you may say, a lie. Partly so. The uni- 
verse is but a trick, however, and half this world a lie. 
Flown to remotest regions were all thoughts of mur- 
der, fire, pillage. Kill him! their best, their truest 
friend? They had never intended such a thing. It 
was other adventure they were dreaming of, they 
could hardly tell what. "O, Mr Tod! Mr Tod! save 
us! save us!" 

Not more than ten minutes were occupied in achiev- 
ing this wonderful revolution of feeling. It was a 
conversion which would honor any apostle or priest, 
aided to the full measure of the miraculous by atten- 
dant spirits. And now black wr^s white, and white 
was black. It was true, however, that the chief trader 
would help them as he was able. Though they would 
cheerfully have killed him half an hour ago, John 
Tod would no more have revenged himself on them 
by doing them injury than he would injure his child. 
They were but children; and if his boasted superiority 
was real, he could afford to overlook so slight a fault 
as intent to murder him. It was true, the small-pox 
was abroad. It was true that in his pocket the chief 
trader carried some vaccine matter. The Hudson's 
Bay people were seldom without medicine. Business 
still. Between his thumb and finger the fur-trader 
held the will of that multitude as the will of one 
man; but lest their erratic mind should change, it 
must be kept occupied. It was not enough that 
the white men should simply escape with their lives; 
the yearly supply of salmon must be secured, and the 
natives must be induced to sell to them, and that 
speedily. Not a word about conspiracy and murder; 
not a word about wrongs and infelicities. Fear must 
be kept alive, the threatening wrath of a mysterious 
unseen power must be before them. Bevenge is for 
fools, for beastly idiots. 

*'You see yonder tree," pointing to an enormous 
pine. 

-Yes/' 



THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. 151 

"Cut it down." 

Away flew their weapons, off w^ent their clothes, 
and as many as could stand round the tree were in 
stantly at work hewing it down. The women now 
came forward from their place of concealment, and to 
these the trader next directed his attention. 

"Do vou see the smoke beyond the bushes?" 

"Yes!" 

"There is my camp. Carry salmon thither, and sell 
to my men." 

Never was the annual requirement more quickly 
completed, nor the price less questioned. Presently 
down came the tree, and the trader wishing to gain 
yet more time, that his men might get well on their 
way toward home, said, "Cut it again, four fathoms 
from the but; then level the stump, and roll the log 
up to it." 

The horses were now all loaded with salmon, and 
Tod gave orders to his men to hasten with their pur- 
chase back to the fort. The last task given to the sav- 
ages was completed, and there being no further cause 
for delay, the chief trader dismounted, and seated 
himself with royal dignity upon the stump, his feet 
resting on the log. 

"Let fifty of the bravest and best of you strip each 
his riglit arm." Only the foremost chiefs were in- 
cluded in this category. "Go down to the river and 
wash that arm," was the next command. Soon they 
returned, and the trader, drawing from his pocket a 
knife and the vaccine matter, began to vaccinate. The 
knife was old and dull; the trader used it princi- 
l)ally in cutting his tobacco and cleaning his pipe; 
therefore strength as well as skill was requisite in 
his rough surgery. I Avill not say that the trader 
derived no pleasure in thus driving the blunt blade 
into arms so latel}^ raised against him, for he was 
human. Indeed, Mr Tod admitted to me, confiden- 
tially, that when the turn of certain noted rascals, 
whom he was satisfied were the head and front of 



152 THE SHUSH WAP CONSPIRACY. 

the conspiracy, came, he did cut away more than was 
absokitely necessary, and did not perhaps feel that 
sohcitude for the comfort of his patients which he 
ought to have done; and if so be the arm — mark! the 
right arm — might not wield a weapon for ten days or 
a fortnight, so much the better. 

The trader was thoroughly fatigued before the 
round was made; and even then, as there was a little 
of the virus left, he vaccinated another score. Then 
he instructed them how they were to carry aloft their 
arm, and when the sore had healed, how with the 
scab they might vaccinate the others. " It was a 
strange sight," says Tod, "to witness the Indians 
going about with their arm upheld and uncovered." 
As a matter of course, it would be fatal to handle a 
weapon before the arm had healed. 

And so the conspiracy of the Shushwaps ended. 
Lolo obtained the sorrel horse, and Tod was worshipped 
throughout that region ever after; for not a man of 
the three hundred would ever after believe that he 
did not owe his life to the chief trader. 

Another incident that happened the following year 
I may briefly mention in this connection. 

A band of Okanagans came one day to Kamloop 
and asked permission of Mr Tod to camp close by the 
fort. Nicola, they said, who lived some forty miles 
south of Kamloop, near the lake which to-day bears 
his name, was very angry with them, and wished to 
kill them. The chief trader assented, stipulating 
that they should behave themselves and obey the 
regulations of the traders. It was a custom of the 
company thus to balance powers aboriginal, taking 
care that in the end they alone should be lords of all. 

Nicola was furious when he heard of it, and swore 
in good stout jargon that white as well as red should 
suffer for so unfair, so unholy an alliance. "A pretty 
pass, indeed, things have reached upon these hunting- 
grounds," he said, "when one cannot fight one's ene- 



NICOLA'S PLOT. 153 

mies without this foreign interference." But he must 
curb his impatience until better prepared ; for in the 
weighing of these rude destinies, arms, and annnunition 
were the strongest factor. So degenerate had become 
the times, since the advent of skm-buyers, that with- 
out these infernal implements little could be done in 
the killing line. The Okanagans were well armed; 
Nicola was short of guns; and as the chief trader was 
at present opposed to slaughter, he would furnish no 
weapons knowingly for that purpose. 

Nicola was shrewd as well as energetic. His influ- 
ence was not so widely extended as Lolo's, but within 
his narrower area he was absolute. His warriors were 
active, experienced, brave; moreover, he was rich, and 
loved revenge The fort people loved furs; better 
than revenge, religion, or other earthly distemper they 
loved them ; furs piled mountain high ; furs without 
end. 

One day certain of Nicola's men appeared at the 
fort wishing to buy guns, which were given them. 
Shortly afterward others of the same nation came, 
and asked for powder, balls, and more guns, which 
were likewise sold to them. The Okanagans watched 
these proceedings narrowly. 

"Why should Nicola require so many guns?" they 
asked of the chief trader. 

"For hunting, I suppose; I do not know." 

" No, they are not for hunting, but for us." 

" If I thought so, I would sell them no more; bold 
and vindictive as he is, Nicola would hardly dare 
attack people under my protection, under the very 
shadow of the holy tabernacle of traffic." 

"He will dare; he will do it. Those bullets are 
for us, for our wives and our little ones." 

Again came others from Lake Nicola, and asked 
for knives and guns, and nothing else. 

" Why do you buy only arms and so much annnu- 
nition ? " demanded the trader. " You will leave none 
for others." 



154 THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

"We are going on a long journey, beyond the 
Kootenais, to hunt," they replied. 

''Ah! my friends; your hunt, I fear, is nearer home. 
You wish to kill the Okanagans. I will sell you no 
more weapons; and you may tell that old fox, Nicola, 
that if he, or any of his men, dare lift a finger against 
any person within five miles of Kamloop, I will be upon 
him in a way of which he has never yet dreamed." 

This being told to Nicola, in no wise tended to 
assuaofe his WTath. Summonino; his warriors, and 
such of the neighboring chiefs as he could prevail 
upon to hear him, he talked to them, he harangued 
them; breath failino^ him, he rested, and then ao^ain 
harangued, until at length the presence of tlie spirit 
was felt, and the converts acknowledged it their duty 
to capture the fort as well as kill the Okanagans. 
" Refuse us, indeed!" growled Nicola, as he expressed 
his thanks, "we will take what we require without 
the asking." 

Surely enough it was reported shortly after that 
Nicola was marching with a large force upon the fort. 
As usual Tod had but a few men with him, not more 
than six; for it Vv^as by the power of mind, and not by 
physical strength, that the fur-traders everywhere 
held dominion. Again w^as strategy Tod's only re- 
source; for even his few men became so frightened 
that they fled to the woods, a most unusual proceed- 
insT in fur-tradingf annals. The Okanaofans, of course, 
retired to a place of safety, and the chief trader see- 
ing himself thus left alone, sent his wife and children 
with them. One only of his men, a Canadian named 
Lefevre, returned repentant. 

" I cannot leave you, Mr Tod; I would rather die 
with you." 

"No, you had better go; we are too few to fight 
them. Had the others remained and stood by the 
company's property, as they were bound to do, we 
might hold the fort until assistance from Langley 
could reach us; as it is I would prefer to be alone." 



THE GUXTOWDER FARCE. 155 

Tod now bethought himself of the somewhat stale 
gunpowder ruse. It seemed his only chance of sav- 
ing the fort; and he did not believe the trick hod ever 
been played in these parts. There was danger enough 
attending it to make it deeply interesting to him, for 
if he failed in the execution, or if Nicola suspected 
that it was a trick, the fort was lost. Nicola was not 
a common native; he possessed a powerful will; his 
intellect was keen; his hatred, when aroused, was 
tigerish. But he was afraid of Tod; it is only the 
dull and brutish savage that does not fear civilization. 
Nicola was intelligent enough to know that the white 
man, with his superior arts and appliances, held 
the poor redskin at disadvantage. Another point 
was greatly in favor of the fur-trader in the coming 
combat: an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company 
very seldom deceived an Indian. It was the leading 
maxim of their policy to inspire confidence as well 
as fear. "Did ever I lie to you?" roars Tod, as he 
heaps oaths and blows on the head of an offender. 
" Did not I tell you I would knock you down? And 
there! I have kept my word," as the redskin drops 
sprawling. 

So that when the chief trader sprang from an am- 
bush and caught one of Nicola's men who w^as recon- 
noitring close upon what he now supposed the 
deserted fort; when he drove the captive within the 
palisades, and forced him to bring from the magazine 
three kegs of powder, upon one of which the trader 
seated himself, driving in the heads of the two others 
with his heel; when he asked the affrighted savage 
for his flint, coolly remarking that he was now ready 
to meet Nicola, and any number of his men, for that 
the power was at hand to blow into atoms the whole 
earth from Kamloop to Okanagan Lake; when this 
was done, I say, and the terror-stricken captive, as 
a mark of benign favor was permitted to escape and 
save himself, upon the solemn promise that he would 
not reveal the plot to Nicola or any other person, the 



156 THE SHUSHWAP CONSPIRACY. 

man believed it, and Nicola believed it, when his scout, 
more dead than alive, returned to him and told him 
all, as the wily Tod had wished, and well knew would 
be the case. These credulous wilderness men had 
never seen so great a mass of powder, and had no idea 
of the effect if ignited at one time. If the little 
a nutshell will hold can bring down a buffalo, three 
keofs mio-ht brino^ the world down. What Mr Tod 
had said, that would he do. Besides, if while the buf- 
falo was being brought down by the nutshell of pow- 
der he who fired the shot remained uninjured, might 
not he escape harm, who, with three kegs, blows the 
world up? So Nicola made overtures of peace, which 
the chief trader required should include the Okana- 
gans. The following summer John Tod retired from 
Kamloop. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ANDERSON'S EXPLORATIONS. 

184G-1847. 

Necessity of a New RotTTE between the British Columbia Seaeoaed 
AND New Caledonia: — Must be Wholly within British Territory — 
Anderson Proposes Explorations — Authority and Means Granted — 
Biographical and Bibliographical Note of Anderson and his 
Manuscript History — Sets out from Alexandria— Proceeds to 
Kamloop — Thence Explores by Way of Ander,son and Harrison 
Lakes to Langley — Returns by Way of the Coquihalla, Similka- 

MEEN, AND LaKE NiCOLA — SeCOND EXPEDITION ALONG THOMPSON AND 

Eraser Rivers — Back by Kequeloose and the New Similkameen 
Tbail — Report and Suggestions. 

Meanwhile brams were active in the interior as 
well as at Fort Vancouver and on the seaboard. In 
1845 A. C. Anderson/ who was stationed at Fort 
Alexandia, New Caledonia, then the low^est post on 
the Fraser excej3t Langley, became convinced that 
the boundary line between United States and British 
domain on the Pacific would be drawn, by the treaty 
then pending', north of the lower Columbia ; in which 
event, a route from the ocean to the interior, wholly 
within British territory, would become a matter of 
primary importance. 

^ While at Victoria in 1878 I made the acquaintance of Mr Anderson, and 
spent much of my time with him in studying Northwest Coast aflfairs. In- 
deed, without that experience and the information then given me by Ander- 
son, Tolniie, Finlayson, and others, I do not see how I couhl have written 
with any degree of completeness or correctness a history either of Oregon or 
of British Columbia. Anderson was the most scholarly of all the Hudson's 
Bay Company officers; Tolmie was keen and practical; Fiidayson intellectual 
and courtly. Sir James Douglas, Mr Work, and Mr Ogden imfortunately 
were dead, Init their respective families kindly placed at my disposal all the 
information within their reach. I speak of all these gentlemen elsewhere. I 

(157) 



158 ANDERSON'S EXPLORATIONS. 

Acting on this conviction, Anderson \ATote Governor 
Simpson, in council at Norway House, Lake Win- 
nipeg, asking permission to explore a route from 

will give here only a brief biographical and bibliographical sketch of ]Mr 
Anderson and his works. 

The more immediate result of my many interviews with Mr Anderson is a 
manuscript History of the NorthweM Coast, comprising 285 pages, and cover- 
ing the entire field of Oregon affairs to 1846, and of matters relating to New 
Caledonia and British Columbia to date. So far as possible, the needless 
repetition of facts already in print was avoided. He as well as I knew well 
enough what was wanted, and as neither of us had time to waste, we confined 
ourselves pretty closely to inquiries into the domain of unrevealed facts. A 
thousand important events are thus for the first time placed upon record, and 
a thousand incidents heretofore but vaguely stated are explained. In style, 
Mr Anderson is somewhat pompous, pedantic, and diffusive in parading him- 
self before the world, while in bringing into proper prominence the deeds of 
his associates a false delicacy makes him painfully reticent. This is a habit 
common to all the officers of the great monopoly, who, after living in deadly 
fear of speaking of company affairs for a score or two of years, almost tremble 
in their old age to set their tongues wagging over these old-time and sacred 
secrets. But for his honesty, courtesy, his sound business sense, and dis- 
criminating analysis of character, we may well forgive him a few superiiuous 
words and high-sounding sentences. Throughout the whole work, particularly 
in the first pages, the facts are sadly jumbled, being thrown together as they 
arose in our minds, without regard to chronological or other ortler; but when 
segregated from the confused mass, by the system of note-taking obtaining 
in my Library, and being brought into conjunction with parallel facts and con- 
temporaneous incidents, almost every sentence is a jewel which finds its proper 
fitting. To the personal work of Mr Anderson are appended certain Autograph 
Notes hy the late John. Stuart, written at Torres, Scotland, in 1842, and consist- 
ing of caustic criticism of a previous narrative by Mr Anderson. While that 
work of Anderson's is as a whole highly eulogized by Stuart, parts of it were 
pronounced apocryphal, and other parts exaggerated. This indeed would be 
the case with any work which could be written. Place three or even two of 
these old Hudson's Bay men in a room to discuss general affairs in which tliey 
had all participated, and hot words if not blows are sure to follow. In his 
Notes, Stuart takes exceptions to the dark side only of Indian character M'liich 
Anderson chooses to dwell upon, and to the boundaries Anderson gives to 
New Caledonia, which Stuart says are too limited, and the like. To all this 
Anderson replies in such a way as to bring out the real state of affairs in the 
clearest possible manner. 

And now for a brief biography, leaving details to their proper place in the 
history. Alexander Caulfield Anderson, a native of Calcutta, educatetl in 
England, was a youth of eighteen, having served the Hudson's Bay adventurers 
as clerk but one year when in 1832 he first appeared at Fort Vancouver. 
After particijjating in the founding of the posts at Milbank Sound and on the 
Stikeen, in the summer of 1835 he was appointed to Mr Ogden's district of 
New Caledonia, and reached Fort Ceorge about the beginning of September. 
He Avas then despatched with a party by way of Yellowhead Pass to Jasper 
House to meet the Columbia brigade, and bring back goods for the New Cale- 
donia district. Two months afterward he was appointed to the charge of the 
post at the lower end of Eraser Lake, his first independent command. In the 
autumn of 1839 he was removed to Fort George, and in the spring of 1840 
accompanied the outgoing brigade to Fort Vancouver, and in the autumn 
of the same year was apiJointed to the charge of Fort Nisqually. In the 
autumn of 1841 Mr Anderson left Nisqually and passed the winter at Fort 
Vancouver Next spring he went with the express to York Factory^ re- 



FORMER SURVEYS. 159 

Alexandria to Langley through a tract of country 
then practically unknown. His request was granted, 
five men were detailed for the service,^ and the neces- 
sary horses and outfit provided. 

The descent of the Fraser had been twice at- 
tempted, and twice, after a fashion, made : once in 
1808 by John Stuart and Simon Fraser; and once, 
twenty years after, by Governor Simpson. It was 
known to be unnavigable in part; it was then deemed 
decidedly impracticable for boats. Some other path- 
way must therefore be made, where nature was less 
oppugnant. 

turned in October and proceeded to Fort Alexandria, to the charge of which 
he had been api)ointed, and remained there till 1848, having meanwhile 
been promoted. In that year lie was appointed to the Colville district, suc- 
ceeding Chief Factor John Lee Lewes. At Colville he remained, making an- 
nual trips with supplies and bringing out the furs to Fort Langley till 1851, 
when lie went to Fort Vancouver as assistant to Mr Ballendeu, and succeeded 
temporarily to the superintendence till 1854, when he retired from active 
service. Marrying, he passed a few years near the house of his father-in-law, 
James Birnie, and then purchased a home at Cathlamet. In 1858 he went to 
Victoria to inquire into the gold discoveries. Douglas urged him to accept 
cflBce and bring his family and assist in the afifairs of the colony, which he did, 
since residing at Rosebaiik, Saanich, near Victoria. In 1876 he was appointed 
by the Dominion government commissioner to settle the Indian land dif- 
ferences in British Columbia, and continued to act in that capacity until the 
commission was dissolved in 1878. On his retirement from the Hudson's Bay 
Conii)any's service in 1853-4, he received two years' retiring furlough in ad- 
dition to the usual retired interest, which continued for seven years subse- 
quently. It was as chief trader that he left the service of the company, his 
commission as chief factor being dependent on his returning to take charge 
01 New Caledonia, where he hail already passed a year; but the education of 
his family demanded that he should reside nearer tlie conveniences of civiliza- 
tion. In lS4li Mr Anderson made an exploration for a route from Alexandria 
down the Fraser Valley to Fort Langley, and in 1847 a similar survey from 
Kamloop down the Thompson to the mouth of the Nicola; thence by way of 
Lytton to Yale and Langley. The lines then traced afterward became the 
main routes of access to the interior. In 1858, in order to obtain means for 
transport of goods to the newly discovered gold-diggings, he recommended 
and directed the opening of a road from the head of Harrison Lake by way of 
Lake Anderson to the crossing of the Fraser, where Lilloet was afterwarvl 
located. Five hundred miners were employed on the work, and the road thus 
constructed was used for the transport of all supplies, until the road along 
the Fraser was made. In personal appearance, at the time I saw him, he 
being then sixty-three years of age, Mr Anderson was of slight build, wiry 
make, active in mind and l)ody, with a keen, penetrating eje, covered by lids 
which persisted in a perpetual and spasmodic winking, brought on years ago 
by snow-tield exposures, and now become habitual, and doubtless as disagree- 
able to him as to his friends. In speech lie was elegant and precise, and by 
no means so verbose as in his writings, and in carriage, if not so dignified as 
Finlayson, his manner would do him credit at St James. 

'^ Their names were Edward ^lontigny, J. B. Vautrin, Abraham Charbon- 
nedern. Theodore Lacourse, and William Da\'is. Aiidnr^oii'^ Xorthiccst C'im-<i.. 
MS., l-_'4. 



160 ANDERSON'S EXPLORATIONS. 

Anderson's journal dates from Kamloop, the capi 
tal of the Thompson River district/ whence, on the 
15th day of May 1846, they started, and passed down 
Thompson River to Cache Creek, in the main by the 
hne of what is now the wagon-road. The first en- 
campment was at the lower end of Kamloop Lake. 
Crossing the Defunt River in an old canoe which 
they found at hand, narrowly escaping being swept to 
their death by an eddy into a boiling rapid in the 
eftbrt, they continued to the River Bonaparte which 
they found much swollen. Nearly the whole of the 
17th was consumed in making a bridge for the men, 
and finding a ford for the horses. At night they en- 
camped at the Biviere aux Chapeaux.'* 

Through a cut in the hills they passed on next day 
to a small lake, then to another lake, then to Pavil- 
lion river and villasfe on the Fraser, folio wino- which 
southward they reached Upper Fountain at four 
o'clock. In the early part of the day they had 
startled a village of natives, who, rushing to arms 
midst terrific yells and fear-compelling antics, threat- 
ened the party with instant annihilation. On An- 
derson's riding forward and demanding what all the 
uproar was about, they subsided into the smallest 
compass, saying they thought their enemies were at 
hand. 

Here the way was found too rugged for horses,^ so 

^ ' I remember the old, compact, and well-palisaded fort, and the stockades 
a little distance off, large enough for three or four hundred horses, for the 
horse brigades for transport of goods in and returns out for the district, and 
for New Caledonia, generally numbered about two hundred and fifty horses. 
A beautiful sight was that horse brigade, with no broken hacks in the train, 
but every animal in his full beauty of form and color, and all so tractable. ' 
Malcolm McCleod, in Peace Biver, 114. The New Caledonia and Thompson 
River brigades were encamped at Kamloop when Anderson set out. 

* Now called Hat Creek. ' This stream derives its name from an Indian 
habitation connected with a large granite stone on its left bank indented with 
several hat-iike cavities; it flows through a very picturesque valley richly 
covered with herbage, and bordered by hills sprinkled by fir-trees.' Ander- 
sons Northwest Coast, MS., 125. 

^ ' The proposed track passes over a mountain 1,500 to 2,000 feet high, the 
summit of which even at this advanced season is still thickly covered with 
snow, and obviously impassable save with snow-shoes. Indeed, there does 
not exist the slightest possilnlity of a horse-road in this direction suitable for 
our purposes.' Andersons Northwest Coast, MS., 128. 



DOWN THE FRASER. 161 

they were sent into the open country southward, to 
the Vermilion branch of the Similkameen River, there 
to await Anderson's return, and the party continued 
down the river, alternately on foot and by canoe. 
Engaging several native lads to carry luggage, they 
continued their journey next day and crossed Eraser 
River at Lilloet. Anderson had hoped to be able to 
follow Eraser River to its mouth, but this he now 
found impossible. "Precipitous rocks, ten to fifteen 
hundred feet in height,'' he says, **rise on both sides, 
and preclude the possibility of all progress by land, 
save perhaps by scaling the craggy sides at some rare 
points less precipitous than the rest." He concluded, 
therefore, to strike westward by lakes Seton and 
Anderson, and thence proceed southward by Lilloet 
and Harrison lakes, which was done. It was a rough 
journey, but the natives everywhere received him 
with demonstrations of joy, and lent him every assist- 
ance, so that no insurmountable obstacles opposed 
him. 

On the 21st, while in the vicinity of Lilloet River, 
Anderson writes: "As far as my search extended, I 
did not see any favorable spot conveniently situated 
for an establishment having the maintenance of a 
horse-pasture in view. But it may be presumed that 
should the idea ever be entertained, a narrower search 
than the state of our provisions enabled me to insti- 
tute would prove successful." 

The journey by the line of lakes was made chiefly 
in canoes obtained from the natives, though portages 
were frequent. About noon on the 24th, the party 
fell upon Eraser River again, and at five o'clock the 
same day reached Eort Langley. 

Thus far Anderson Avas not particularly pleased 
with his success, but he hoped to do better on his 
return. Embarking at Langley, the 28th of jMay, in 
company with a party from the fort who were ascend- 
ing the river for the purpose of establishing a salmon 
fishery, they encamped the first night just below the 



Hist. Brit. Col. 11 



162 



ANDERSON'S EXPLORATIONS. 



Chilakweyak.^ The second day thereafter, at noon, 
they reached the mouth of the Tlaekullum, just below 
the Quequealla'' River, where the town of Hope now 
stands. There Anderson and his assistants were left 
by the Fort Langley party. 




Anderson's Routes. 



Anderson had brought with him an Indian chief 
as a guide to the head waters of the Similkameen, 
and, plunging through the Cascade Range, hoped 
for the best.'^ Over a high ridge, he continued his 
march through a labyrinth of huge bowlders which 



^ Written by Anderson Chilwhaeook. 

' Or as it is now called the Coquihalla. On Trutch's map Coquhalla. 

' 'This from all I could ascertain, both at Kamloop and Fort Langley, 15 
the most probable if not only route by -which it is likely we may discover 1 
-cojnmunication for horses, if such exist.' Anderson's N. Coast, MS., 13*. 



SKAGIT RIVER. 163 

seemed to laugh at these searchers for a horse-way 
through them, and the baffled party beat a retreat. 
Another defile^ to the northward was next attempted 
and with better success. Returning to the Fraser, 
Anderson engaged a boat, which carried them into the 
Quequealla, where disembarking they took a south- 
eastward course by land, and soon found themselves in 
a broad, well watered valley. Passing out of this 
into a defile, they examined the country carefully on 
both sides of the river, and though rugged, Anderson 
discovered a route through which he thought a road 
might be built. Of the surface over which his 
proposed horse-path should go, he gives a minute 
description, so particular that from it a contractor 
might almost make an estimate of the cost of con- 
struction. 

The first day of June, while groping his way slowly 
among the craggy hills and unexplored streams of 
this region, Anderson fell in with an intelligent Indian 
from the fork of Thompson River. He was hunting 
beaver, and being well acquainted with the country 
Anderson engaged him under promise of a few charges 
of ammunition and some tobacco to show him the 
way. The party were now at the Sumallow^" branch 
of the Skagit River, down which they proceeded to 
the fork, and then up the north-east branch, or the 
head-waters of the Skagit. Their way was for the 
most part through a rocky, thickly wooded country, 
the elevations and even some of the valley's being 
covered with snow. Occasional patches of grass were 
found on which horses might feed. Wending their 
way north-east toward the height of land, they leave 
the little river and ascend the mountain from whose 
side the forest had been partially burned by the natives. 
Arrived at the summit, a vast expanse of white lay 

^ It was up the Tlaekullum defile the Langley guide first took them ; now 
Anderson proposed to follow up the Quequealla. 

^"The Indians call it Simalaouch, or Simallaow, and say that it falls, aa 
nearly as I can ascei-tain, somewhere in the vicinity of Bellingham Bay.' 
Anderson's Korlhwcst Coast, MS., 144. 



164 ANDERSONS EXPLORATIONS. 

spread out before them.^^ Close at hand was a small 
lake havinof a strikingf resemblance to the Committee's 
Punch Bowl at the summit of Athabasca Pass. Here 
their guide left them. 

Missing a good Indian trail on account of its being 
covered with snow, they wandered about, scarcely know- 
ing where they were. One of the party, Montigny, 
lost himself while out exploring, and Anderson was 
obliged to go in search of him. From Summit Lake 
they followed, as best they might, its outlet, which 
was a feeder of the Similkameen Piver, to Vermilion, 
or Ped Earth Fork, the appointed rendezvous, where 
they found their horses. 

Proceeding northward through a fine open country, 
they reached the Louchameen road, just above Pocher 
de la Biche, which took them to McDonald Piver, 
whence by Nicola Lake they continued their journey 
with ease and pleasure to Kamloop, where they 
arrived at evening on the 9th of June. Thence An- 
derson proceeded to Alexandria. 

" This line," says Anderson, " in its main features 
was afterward adopted for the government road, and 
is the direct route of communication with the south- 
western interior of British Columbia." It was the 
intention that the trail from Kamloop to Hope 
should be made suitable for horses. For, concludes 
the journal, "a. temporary establishment would of 
course be required at the place where the horses 
must remain, at the mouth of the Quequealla. Ac- 
cording to all accounts, this vicinity affords one of the 
most prolific fisheries on Fraser Piver. The services 
of a few men might thus be profitably employed in 
the interval during which it would be necessary to 
maintain the post. The boats necessary for the accom- 
modation of the brigade were to be brought up by 
the Langley people and Indians at the proper period, 

" The cause was easily explained, being ' ascribable to the relative position 
of the opposite sides; that by which we ascendetl has a southern exposure, 
lying open, consequently, to the full influence of the sun's rays, aided by the 
southern winds, and vice versa.' Andersons Nortlnvest Coast, MS., 149. 



I 



THE SIMILKAMEEN COUNTRY. 1€5 

conveying salt and barrels; the products of the fishery 
to be conveyed by the same means to Fort Langlcy, 
after the return of the brigade." 

From Alexandria, Anderson wrote the board of 
management at Fort Vancouver on the 21st, and 
again on tlie 23d of June, giving the particulars of 
his proceedings and his opinion concerning the result. 
By waiting until the snow melted, and the streams 
^ swollen thereby had subsided, he pronounced practi- 
cable the route by way of the Quequealla and Lake 
Nicola. Fearful lest the opening of a road by the 
white men should the easier let their enemies of the 
Similkameen upon them, the natives of Fraser River 
did not kindly regard the movement. Indeed, Ander- 
son was informed by Blackeye, a most respectable abo- 
riginal and an attache of Kamloop, that Pahallok, chief 
of the Fraser River Indians, had tampered with his 
fidelity by attempting to persuade him to mislead and 
thereby deter the road-makers from their purpose. 
Some delay might arise therefrom, but no serious 
trouble w^as apprehended. 

It was an important matter, this selection of a 
route for the main line of travel between the British 
Columbia sea-board and the interior, and the stu- 
pendous obstacles interposed by nature rendered it not 
so easy of accomplishment. Anderson had learned 
much in his late exploration, but yet he was not 
thoroughly satisfied. Hence, in the following sum- 
mer we find him examining Thompson and Fraser 
rivers betw^een Kamloop and Langley, having the 
same purpose in view. 

Setting out from Kamloop on the 19th of May 
1847, Anderson proceeds with five men to Xicola 
Lake, w^hence, following the Xicola River by the trail 
of the trading parties to its junction wdth the Thomp 
son, he sends back the horses, to meet him on the 
Fraser near Anderson River, wdicre there is a well- 
known trail from that point to Similkameen. The 



166 ANDERSON'S EXPLORATIONS. 

weather is sultr^^ ; several Indian camps are encountered 
on the way ; the country is remarkable for its rugged 
volcanic rock, wormwood, and rattlesnakes. Crossing 
the Nicola in a canoe, on the 22d the explorers con- 
tinue along the left bank of Thompson River, crossing 
the streams on fallen trees until next day, when they 
reach Fraser River, and encamp near the Indian 
village of Shilkumcheen, where now stands Lytton. 
Here, contracted to a width of some sixty yards and 
deepened correspondingly, the Thompson flows quietly 
between ragged bounds of limestone and granite into 
the Fraser. Soon Pahallok presents himself, and de- 
livers a letter from Yale. Accompanying the chief 
is a concourse of savages, men, women, and children, 
a scampish-looking set of vagabonds Anderson calls 
them, though exceedingly polite and affable. 

Continuing along the left bank of the Fraser on the 
24th, Anderson finds the road as well as the river-bed 
exceedingly rough, and pronounces it impracticable 
for a loaded horse brigade. Nor can Pahallok or any 
native of that region point out a smoother way.^' 
Still the natives at the villages they pass receive them 
with loud acclaims and bombastic oratory. At the 
stream called Tummuhl the aborigines are actively 
employed in erecting a stockade for protection against 
their enemies, and the superior death-dealing con- 
trivances of the white men would be exceedingly ser- 
viceable just now. Squazowm, a populous village, is 
reached the 25th. The river banks in this vicinity 
are wooded with cedar, pine, and plane trees, and the 
hills which rise abruptly in the background are free 
from timber in parts, afibrding good pasturage. Herb- 
age on the elevations is luxuriant, and the hill-sides 
are decked with larkspur, red flowering vetch, and 
the dwarf sunflower, which flaunts its glories in brave 
contrast to the arid declivities so recently passed. 

^^ ' In the vicinity of the village called Skaoose is a succession of rocky 
hills, some of which are avoidable by making a cu'cuit, while others appear to 
offer no such alternative . . The rocky passages extend for a long distance. ' 
Andersons Northwest Coast, MS., 165. 



I 



THE RETURN. 187 

The horse-road wliicli leads hence to the Similkameen 
country, as well as the region between this point and 
Nicola Lake, is well known to Montigny and Michel 
Ogden, both of whom have traversed it; therefore 
Anderson deemed it safe enough to order his horses 
sent thither, and does not feel obliged to stop now to 
examine it. The new road was but recently opened 
by the Similkameens. 

Their way now lies along the Squazowm/^ which 
they cross upon a fallen tree and follow for some dis- 
tance, when they pass over to the Fraser. Anderson 
now seeks a suitable place for a ferry across this man- 
defj'Hig stream, passage by the left bank becoming- 
more than ever perilous. Kequeloose, near where 
the suspension bridge has since been erected, is reached 
the 27th, and Spuzzum six miles below, which stands 
on the right bank of the Fraser, and where Pahallok 
proposes that the ferry should be placed. "The coun- 
try is very rough," remarks Anderson, *'and much labor 
with many painful circuits would be necessary to com- 
plete a road anywise practicable for horses." The ex- 
plorers, after careful observation, think most of the 
rapids hereabout can be run as safely as those of the 
Columbia. Leaving now the rapids, their pathway 
leads along a causeway of cedar boards connecting- 
several projecting points overhanging a precipice; ob- 
viously an exceedingly dangerous walk. Then after 
crossing a stream they come on the 28th to the first 
village of the Sachincos, where afterward the fort and 
town of Yale were placed. After a hearty breakfast 
next morning, on fresh salmon and potatoes furnished 
by the natives, in hired canoes they pass rapidly down 
the river to Langley. 

Returning, they leave Fort Langley the 1st of 
June, having, in addition to the canoes hired from 
the natives, a large Northwest Coast canoe in which 
Anderson proposes to attempt the ascent of the rap- 

i^Now, more appropriately than is always the case', called Anilerson 
River. 



168 ANDERSON'S EXPLORATIONS. 

ids to Kequeloose, where he proposes the horse-port- 
age of commerce by proving the navigabihtj^ of the 
Fraser thus far. The ascent of the rapids is begun 
on the 4th of June, a rainy day, the natives offi- 
ciating with the boat/* Two portages are made with- 
out much difficulty, when the boat is lightened, and 
taken by a line through the swollen channel; then 
crossing to the opposite side, the ascent w^as continued, 
one Indian being in the boat and the others dragging 
by the line. All goes well until the middle of the last 
rapid is about reached, when the line parts, and the 
boat sweeps swiftly down the current while a w^ail as- 
cends from the bank over the perilous position of the 
boatman. Fortunately, with the boat but half full 
of water, he succeeds in getting it into an eddy, and 
so comes to land. But he cannot be induced to enter 
it again ; so the canoe is carried with no small diffi- 
culty to the head of the falls, where they encamp. 
After paying the natives for their important assist- 
ance, they continue next morning, breakfast at Spuz- 
zuni, and reach Kequeloose at eleven. Leaving the 
canoe in charge of Pahallok, they set out over the 
proposed horse-portage by way of Lake Nicola to 
Kamloop, clearing the way with their axes as they 
go, and reaching the horse rendezvous the 8th. The 
last day they had merely indicated the route by chip- 
ping the trees, the natives under the superintendence 
of Pahallok undertaking to finish this portion of the 
road for them. The natives below object to the pro- 
posed change of route, and one of them threatens dis- 
turbance, but is soon quieted. On the 10th, Anderson 
leaves the party in charge of Montrose McGillivray, 
with orders to continue the opening of the road to 
Lake Nicola, and then to proceed to Kamloop in 
time to meet with the horses of the New Caledonia 

i-* 'Cross to the eddy at the foot; make a short portage and reembark. . . 
A series of eddies conducts to a second portage upon the same side, right as- 
cending . . . Cross and breakfast at the foot of the rapid formed like the first 
by a rock which lies near the left shore.' Andersons JSforthioest Coast, MS., 
178. 



ANOTHER ROUTE. 1G9 

brigade at Okanagan. Anderson then presses on to 
McDonald River and Kaniloop, and thence proceeds 
to Alexandria. 

It would seem from these facts, taken wholly from 
Anderson's journals and letters, that prior to these 
expeditions no route between Langley and New Cale- 
donia was open ; none practicable was known to exist, 
the nearest approach to it being that portion of an 
Indian or horse trail from Similkameen to Keque- 
loose, a point on Fraser River six miles above Spuz- 
zum. His first return route, by the defile of the 
Coquihalla and the Vermilion Fork of the Similka- 
meen, Anderson thouglit presented almost insurmount- 
able obstacles; the snow alone preventing the road 
from being open for more than a brief period each 
year. The second route, by way of Kequeloose, he 
preferred, provided the rapids intervening could be 
overcome. Of the first he reports to the board of 
management: "I have no opinion of its feasibility. 
It is difficult to realize a conception of the ruggedness 
of this extraordinary region." And of the other route : 
"Keeping in view the obvious disadvantages insepa- 
rable from the route surveyed by me last summer, as 
being available only for a comparatively brief season 
of the year, I have no longer any hesitation in accord- 
ing a decided preference to the route recentl}" exam- 
ined by way of Kequeloose. The series of rapids in 
the vicinity of the falls, extending with intervals of 
smooth water in all from two to three miles, presents 
no insurmountable impediment to our progress, from 
the facility of making portages if found necessary, as 
they doubtless will be at the higher stages of the 
water. . . . For divers reasons I would suggest that the 
New Caledonia party, if intending to pass by the new 
route, should not leave Alexandria before the 25th 
May, timing their departure so as to reach Langley 
about the 20th June, to admit of a delay of ten days 
there, and to depart about the 1st July, a day or two 



170 ANDERSON'S EXPLORATIONS. 

later than the brigade usually leaves Vancouver by 
the present route." We shall see later the more 
definite results of these observations; suffice it for 
the present to say, that several lines were ultimately 
opened, and that Anderson was finally led to modify 
his first marked preference for the route by way of 
Xequeloose and Lake Nicola. 

Understanding that it was the intention of the 
board of management to open the new route the fol- 
lowing spring, that is to say, 1848, Anderson coupled 
with his report the following suggestions: 

A sufficient number of boats, similar to those used 
on the Columbia, should be constructed during the 
winter, either at Kequeloose or Langley, and if built 
at the latter place, they should be sent to the ren- 
dezvous at Kequeloose before the river was swollen 
by the melting snow. A gauge at Langley would at 
all times determine the state of things above, the rise 
or fall of one foot at that point being equivalent to a 
rise or fall of eight or ten feet in the confined channels 
of the inferior regions. It would be well for the 
brigade to time its return with the ascent of the 
salmon, as well that provisions might be plenty as 
that navigation would be easier, owing to the abating 
of the waters, which considerations apply to all the 
lines of intercommunication as far north as Stuart 
Lake, Likewise by making the annual departure 
from Alexandria as late in the spring as possible, agri- 
cultural operations would be less interfered with, and 
horses then would be in better condition. 

Anderson concludes with a lengthy discussion, de- 
tailing regulations which should govern the s^jring 
and autumn expresses to and from Hudson Bay, the 
use of boats and horses, and the introduction, where 
necessary, of sledges and snow-shoes, an Indian mail 
system, intercourse between posts, protection of prop- 
erty, treatment of the natives, and the like, all emi- 
nently practical and interesting, but which for lack of 
S23ace I shall not be able here to introduce. 



CHAPTER X. 

YALE AKD HOPE ESTABLISHED. 
1848-18-49. 

Establishment ox the Eraser at the Landing of the Sachincos — James 
Murray Yale — Causes Which Led to the Building of Fort Yale — 
Orders Given Interior Traders to Break their Way through to 
Langley — Three Brigades Join for That Purpose — The Route 
Chosen not Satisfactory — Anderson's Propos.il — Building of Fort 
Hope— A New Route Attempted — It Proves Worse than the 
First — Joseph W. McKay on the North Coast — Sh-^rp Practice 
BETWEEN English and Russian Traders — The ' Constance ' in North- 
ern Waters — Effects in British Columbia of the CALiFORNLi. Gold 
Discovery — Bags of Gold-dust at Fort Victoria — The Excitement 
IN the Interior. 

Early in the spring of 1848 a small post was 
erected by the Hudson's Bay Company on the Eraser 
River near a village of the Sachincos, and just below 
the rapids ascended by Anderson the year previous. 
The establishment was called Fort Yale, in honor of 
Chief Eactor Yale,^ then in charge of Eort Langle}^ 
and was the only point on the wild, weird Eraser 
between Langley and Alexandria, a distance of some 
three hundred miles, then occupied by white men, save 
only the salmon fishery established below the Coqui- 
halla two years previous. 

^ James ;Mun\ay Yale entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company 
when but a boy, in about the year 1815. For a long time ho remained a boy, 
not receiving any i>romotion until fifteen years after the coalition, or twenty- 
one years after entering the service; and to the day of his death, and long 
afterward, he wa.s known to the officers of the company only as Little Yale. 
Tliough small of statue he was strongly built, wiry, and active, and as coura- 
geous and enduring as a young Hercules. Indeed, his reckless bravery was 
for a time rather against him than otherwise, PS it ren<lered him in a measure 
unfit for the staider duties attending promotion and partncr.sliip; but this 

f 171 ^ 



172 YALE A^D HOPE ESTABLISHED. 

One immediate cause which led to this estabhshment 
was the Waiilatpu massacre, which occurred in the 
autumn of 1847, and the hostiUties which followed. 
Another was the conclusion of the Oregon treaty of 
1846, which not only placed the boundary line several 
degrees north of the lower Columbia, but left the 
matter of duties on foreign goods in such a shape as 
almost to stop business at Fort Vancouver. To Brit- 
ish subjects was reserved the right of freely navigating 
the Columbia and passing over the portages with their 
goods, upon the same terms accorded citizens of the 

was afterward proved a great mistake, or else as the man advanced in years 
he changed materially, for in all the company's service there was scarcely a 
better post-commander than Little Yale. From boyhood, hardship seemed to 
mark him for its own; his young bones were kneaded in the trough of expos- 
ure, and the sword of Damocles seemed too often to hang from the trees of 
the forest lie threaded. His first appearance in the arena of savage life while 
yet a stripling is significant of the man's character and of his subsequent 
career. It was at a time when feuds waxed warm between the brother skin- 
buyers, each fearfvil less the other should gain advantage. The old adven- 
turers of England had fully awakened to the fact that their more shrewd and 
energetic rivals of the Northwest Company were surrounding them in their 
operations, and if they would secure territory ecpial to their desires, they must 
laave the shores of Hudson's Bay and take possession of it. So posts were 
planted along the Saskatchewan, the highest of which was then Edmonton; 
and as Red River blossomed under the benign smile of the Earl of Selkirk, 
his associates followed their more adventurous opponents through Peace River 
Pass, and opened their eyes toward the Pacific. 

Just about the time Yale entered the service, John Clark, with one hun- 
dred men, set out for the Rocky Mountains, and beyond, for the purpose of 
j)lanting new i^osts for the circumvention of the Northwest Company. Cer- 
tain fisheries in the beaver country, upon which they had depended for a win- 
ter's food supply, failed them, and starvation stared them in the face. Their 
rivals were there with food, and would most charitably have supplied them 
on condition of their renouncing allegiance so the old adventurers and joining 
the Northwesters; but sooner than do this they would die. 

And die they must unless relief should soon come. One day an Indian came 
into their camp and reported that his people had been successful fishing, and 
that they had food. Though the way was long and perilous, a party, one of 
whom was the boy Y'ale, set out for the Indian camp. One after another fell by 
the way, overcome by starvation and fatigue, and laid down earth's burden in 
despair. At length Yale's little legs began to fail him. A long tramp through 
the deep snow took him greatly at disadvantage. In this, his first adventure, 
he had become the pet and protege of a stalwart old voyageur, who was as a 
giant to this Jack, and who encouraged him by every means in his jiower to 
keep moving. But all was of no avail. The boy finally threw himself on the 
snow and told his old friend to leave him there and to save himself. The French- 
man contiuued a few paces, calling to his companion to come on and keep up 
his courage. But finding it all of no avail, he retraced his steps, tearing his 
hair, and swearing as only a French Canadian can swear, meanwhile his big 
heart swelling, and as he came up to his now insensible little friend, bursting 
into tears — these villanous voyageurs coiild sometimes cry like women — he ex- 
claimed in his doggerel French: ' Sacre! mis^re! C'est trop de valeur! Em- 



EXPEDITION UNDER MANSON. 173 

United States. But this, of course, did not permit the 
Hudson's Bay Coni]iany to import goods free of duty. 
So long as Fort Vancouver remained the distribut- 
ing depot, imported packages must there be broken 
and parcelled for the several interior and coast stations. 
To pay the same tariff on goods destined for British 
Columbia traffic which citizens of the United States 
were obliged to pay on goods sold in Oregon, was not 
for a moment to be thought of. Less was said in 
Oregon about the terms of the treaty^ as the cause of 
hastening a change of base, than of the hostilities fol- 
lowing the Whitman massacre, which set bristling the 
savages of the Columbia as far up as Walla Walla, 
but the former rendered the opening of a route be-, 
tween the seaboard and the interior within British 
territory as necessary as did the latter. 

The building of Fort Yale had, indeed, been pro- 
jected before the outbreak of hostilities; the terms of 
the treaty were amply sufficient to warrant the move, 
as well as to hasten the opening of a new route, but 
each several event carried its due weight. 

However all this might have been, certain it is that 
early in 1848 orders were sent by express from Fort 
Vancouver to the officers in charge of the interior 
posts immediately to break their way through to 
Langley, where supplies from head-quarters for the 
several districts would be sent this year. 

Acting on these instructions, a party, consisting of 
three brigades, namely, one each from iS^ew Caledonia, 

barque ! Embarque !' by which latter marine exclamation the Canadians were 
wont to tell little people to get on their back, and seizing Yale by tlie arm, 
he swung him over his shoulder on to his pack, and sturdily marched forward. 
That night they reached the Indian camp, where an affecting scene took place. 
We generally associate in our minds with savages only blood-thirstiness, mer- 
cilessness, and cruelty. To many native women were given by the creator 
hearts as humane and tender as to many white-skinned dames. At sight of 
the senseless youth, saj's Anderson, to whom the t:de was told, ' the women 
of the camp melted to tears, rushed forward, carried Yale into their encamp- 
ment, rubbed his limbs to restore suspended circulation, fed liim with choice 
broths, and in every way treated him as if he had been one among their own 
children.' We may be sure the boy never forgot that olil voj'agenr or those 
Indian M-omen. About 1S70, after over half a century of continuous Hud- 
son's Bay Comptmy service, Yale settled near Victoria, and died there, leav- 
ing several children. 



174 YALE AND HOPE ESTABLISHED. 



Thompson River, and Colville, after due preparation, 
set out toward the end of May, selecting as their way 
Anderson's return route of the previous summer. 
Fifty men with four hundred horses, many of them 
unbroken, comprised the party, which was under the 
command of Donald Manson of New Caledonia, he 
being senior officer present, Anderson, in charge of 
the Colville district to which he had been recently 
appointed, being second. 

It is needless to recite the difficulties encountered 
by the three brigades united under Manson. A small 
party can often manage better in an untrodden wilder- 
ness than a large one. In the present instance a large 
band of heavily laden horses was no slight encum- 
brance. Over the roughest part Anderson's former 
journey had been on foot, and with the anxiety and 
chaofrin attending" the discomforts and curses of his 
companions, his ardor for the new route began to 
abate. 

Nevertheless Fort Yale was in due time reached ; 
and leaving there the horses, the party passed rapidly 
down to Langley in boats. The return, which was 
by the same route, was if possible more disastrous 
than had been the journey down. The merchandise 
carried back was more bulky and perishable than was 
their former cargo, and not only a large percentage 
of the property was destroyed, but many of the horses 
were lost. 

The fact is, the course pursued by the united bri- 
gades was over neither of the routes explored by An- 
derson; or at all events, it was over a portion only of 
his favorite road. He had expected to make Keque- 
loose the station on the river for the horses; but the 
rapids had interposed objections too formidable in the 
minds of the management, and hence Fort Yale had 
been built below. The disastrous results of the at- 
tempt of the united brigades to open a road back from 
Fort Yale turned attention once more to Anderson's 
exploration of 1846, and to his return route of that year. 



ANDERSON ON ROUTES. 175 

After their return to Thompson River, in August 
1848, Anderson addressed a written communication 
to his associates there present, Donald ISfanson and 
John Tod, which was subsequently forwarded to the 
management, setting forth the importance of adopt- 
ing immediate measures for the opening of the Simil- 
kameen route, which was his Coquihalla route of 1846 
with certain modifications suggested by Old Blackeye, 
the wise and scientific savage before mentioned. 

It appears that a party had been sent by Yale from 
Langley the previous year to take a second look at 
this section, more particularly to ascertain its condi- 
tion in regard to snow, and a favorable report had 
been made. The snow was not an insurmountable 
obstacle, and a band of workmen with horses in ten 
or fifteen days would be able to make the way pass- 
able. 

As to the route over which they had just passed, 
there could be but a single opinion, and that a condem- 
natory one. ''The question of navigation," continues 
Anderson, ''as far as Kequeloose, where I last year 
proposed the horse transport to commence, being 
negatived, the whole scheme of communication thence 
depending necessarily falls to the ground. The pru- 
dence, not to say possibility, of extending our horse 
transport bej^ond that point has this year been fully 
tested, and needs no comment on my part. As re- 
gardj the question of navigation, my opinions have 
undergone some change; for though as before I thiidv 
it practicable to bring up Columbia boats by making 
the necessary portages, further examination teaches 
me that it must be by very arduous degrees at the 
higher stages of the water, and therefore unadvisable. 
At low water, however, the rapids have been proved 
to be safely navigable with loaded bateaux, one port- 
age only intervening. These points admitted, I am 
still constrained, however reluctantly, to withdraw 
the proposal of navigation formerly advanced by me. 
My recent experience of the pass in question con- 



176 YALE AND HOPE ESTABLISHED. 

vinces me that no portage on a large scale could with 
prudence be effected there during the summer season, 
after the host of barbarians among whom we have 
recently passed are congregated at the fisheries. The 
risks of sacrificing both life and property — for it is 
needless to attempt to cloak the matter — under cir- 
cumstances where neither courage nor precaution 
could avail to resist surprise or guard against treach- 
ery, are alone sufficient to deter us from the attempt. 
The losses by theft, in themselves nowise contempti- 
ble, which have already taken place, are but the 
prelude to future depredations upon a larger scale, 
should the present system of operations be unfortu- 
nately persisted in — depredations which it is to be 
feared will be difficult either to discover in time or to 
prevent effectually." 

Anderson then proposed that Henry Peers, as- 
sisted by Montigny and certain natives, should be 
appointed to the duty of making ready the new 
route. 

In view of all which, during the winter of 1848-9 
another post was established a short distance below 
Yale, on the left bank of the Fraser at the mouth of 
the Coquihalla, to which was given the name Hope.^ 

''Better fortune was expected another time. The Reverend Mr Good ab- 
surdly dates the establishing of Fort Hope 1840-1. British Columbia, MS., 45. 
It is a purely random statement, and might with equal propriety have been 
placed a hundred years earlier or later. ' Fort Hope, ' he says, ' was remarkable 
for the extraordinary beauty and grandeur of its situation, the fort being a 
very old Hudson's Bay Company station erected in 1840-1. From hence the 
company's brigade carried supplies, and communicated for trading purposes 
with stations on the Columbia and other parts of Oregon, by what was called 
the Similkameen Pass, and they also connected with Nicola, Kamloop, and 
Okanagan by the old and well-worn brigade trail.' The author of British 
North America, 283, calls it in 1860 the second town in British Columbia, 
meaning the mainland, and ' next in importance to the capital, ' being ' about 
one hundred miles up the Fraser, at the elbow where the course alters from 
south to west. Here the miners stop both going to and returning from the 
upper country gold-diggings; and a number of Chinese have taken up their 
abode in the town. It is making rapid progress, and roads are Ijeing pushed 
forward north and east of it.' See also Gray's Or., 43, and Barrett-LenarrVs 
Travels, 148-9, which latter work calls the river the Coquiklum, and the 
mountain scenery around it grand and beautiful, while adjacent is the village 
of the Tumsioux Indians, though where he obtains such a name it is difficult 
to decipher. See Andersons Northivest Coast, MS., 175. 



A NEW TRAIL CUT. 



177 



Yale was the head of navigation on the Eraser, while 
should the defile of the Coquihalla prove the most 
advantageous passage to the interior, as was now be- 
coming more than probable, to at least certain parts 
of it, Hope would for the present be the more impor- 
tant post. 

In 1849 the New Caledonia spring brigade followed 
the route of the previous j^ear by way of Yale to 







^^"'^^ #^ / f^ /il Cg, 



Yale and Hope. 



Langley, the Hope road being not yet reacl^ , out, 
returning, disembarked at Hope, determined at all 
hazard to attempt the defile of the Coquihalla. With 
the brigade was brought a number of men from 
Langley, and the whole force being set to work, soon 
cut a trail across the mountains, which differed in 
some respects from Anderson's return route of 1846. 

Hist. Bbit. Col. 12 



178 YALE AND HOPE ESTABLISHED. 

And this was the main route followed until 1860, when 
the government road was made. 

To Joseph W. McKay now in 1 846 was given the gen- 
eral supervision of the north coast establishments, up 
to this time under the more immediate supervision of 
James Douglas. Proceeding northward in the Beaver 
in October, as was usual for the g-eneral accent to do, he 
stopped at the several stations, and made such changes 
and left such instructions as seemed to him best. The 
Russians he found affable and polite, but tricky. '*In 
August 1847," he says, "a chief of the Stakhine Ind- 
ians, whom I knew well and had reason to believe 
perfectly trustworthy, told me that he had been ap- 
proached by a Russian officer with presents of beads 
and tobacco, and that he was told that if he would 
get up a war with the English in that vicinity, and 
compel them to withdraw, he should receive assistance 
in the shape of arms and ammunition, and in case of 
success he would receive a medal from the Russian 
emperor, a splendid uniform, and anything else he 
might desire, while his people should always be paid 
the highest prices for their peltries." 

Taking his position at Fort Simpson in 1847, Mc- 
Kay became practically dominator of that region, and 
so remained for many years, although his duties did 
not confine him there constantly. Traffic being king, 
and McKay king, we are prepared to learn that the 
Hudson's Bay Company were more successful in 
those parts than the Russian American company, 
that the former secured nine tenths of all the beaver 
and land-otter taken in the country drained by the 
Stikeen, and that even on the coast north of the 
river, and toward the country of the Chilkats and 
Tungass, all strictly Russian domain, no small pro- 
portion of the catch fell into the immaculate maw 
of the English adventurers. Armed vessels were 
sent at various times by the Russians to break up 
this traffic, but the trading canoes sent by the Eng- 



NORTH-COAST AFFAIRS. 179 

llsh company Into the intricate channels and inlets 
easily escaped encounter with a superior force. Even 
American and other vessels which went thither to 
trade on their own account were brought into requisi- 
tion by the Hudson's Bay Company in turning the 
tide of this commerce into their own channels and 
away from those of the Russian company. 

Toward the end of 1847, w4iile the Chimsyans and 
Tungass were indulging in hostilities, Shemelin, on 
behalf of the Russian company, made a visit to 
McKaj^, who was then at Bellabella, with the object 
of inducing him, if possible, to use his influence to 
stop the savage feu€l which so greatly interfered with 
trade. For while fighting not only were the belliger- 
ents diverted from hunting, but such furs as they did 
secure fell into the hands of foreign, or, as the great 
monopolists designated them, contraband traders for 
arms and ammunition. 

While Shemelin was thus engao^ed at the house of 
McKay, the two being then at dinner, a native re- 
tainer of the latter appeared at the door, and beckon- 
ing McKay without, informed him that a large fleet 
of his canoes heavily laden w^ith furs surreptitiously 
obtained in Russian teritory, was entering the port. 

What was to be done? It would never do at all to 
let Shemelin know how his company had been robbed 
by the honorable servants of the honorable English 
company, and to parade the spoils before his very 
eyes. Surmise was one thing, positive proof quite 
another. In his dilemma McKay bethought himself 
of the Muscovite love of liquor, and inwardly thanked 
Bacchus for the suggestion. Instantly despatching a 
messenger to the approaching canoes to await his signal 
outside the harbor, he returned to his guest. There 
was less than a gallon of rum in the storehouse, and it 
took nearly the whole of it to stretch the enemy hors 
de combat. But it was done; and while Shemelin lay 
unconscious, and his men were feasting in a house at 
some distance from the scene of action, the expedition 



180 YALE AXD HOPE ESTABLISHED. 

landed, the peltries were speedily put out of sight, and 
the canoes hidden in an adjacent cove.^ 

After the arrival of the frigate Constance at Victoria, 
during the summer of 1848, she sailed northward, call- 
ing at the company's stations along the coast. The 
natives everywhere were impressed by her formidable 
appearance, for she was a fine ship, well manned and 
appointed. Some time after her departure, McKay 
was informed that just then the Chimsyans, Tungass, 
and Stikeens were conspiring to join in an attack on 
the Europeans. Russians and English at one fell 
swoop were to be swept from their shores. But after 
an examination of the death-dealing mechanisms of 
the Constance, they thought better of it. However 
the truth of it may be, it is certain that all through 
the following year these savages were restless and im- 
pudent, and it was only by exercising the utmost care 
and patience that the Hudson's Bay Company pre- 
vented their outbreak. 

There was little difference thus far between the 
character of trade at Fort Victoria and that at other 
posts of the company on the Pacific, the general 
routine of affairs becoming more and more similar to 
business at Fort Vancouver, which establishment it 
was destined in due time wholly to supersede. 

The first startling innovation arose from the Califor- 
nia gold discovery of 1848, which during the following 
year stirred in the breasts of thousands the fires of 
cupidity, and shook with monetary ague the financial 
centres of the world. Fort Victoria was then the 
nearest and most accessible point, outside of San 
Francisco, where miners could obtain their outfits. 
True, they might have gone to Fort Vancouver, and 

^ The officers of tlie Hudson's Bay Company, not less than Washington 
Irving, love to dwell on the fondness of the Russians for liquor, and how driink 
they used to get on every possible occasion. How an intelligent and prominent 
officer like McKay reconciles his accusation when he calls tlie Russians un- 
principled and tricky with this story, which he tells with unblushing gusto, 
I leave the reader to judge. 



CALIFORXIANS IX \^CTOIlIA. 181 

did to some extent; but at the latter post the goods 
had been raised in price by reason of United States 
duties, and the stock was hkewise daily dimmishing 
there, while supplies were constantly increasing at 
Fort Victoria. The custom-house regulations at San 
Francisco were then not of the strictest, especially in 
regard to miners' outfits. AVhilc at that point articles 
not immediately desired could scarcely be sold at all, 
such goods as were in demand and of limited supply 
bore exorbitant prices. Hence many miners, particu- 
larly during the winter, when they could not work 
their placers, found it more profitable to take a 
passage on a sailing vessel for the north coast, and 
there lay in their spring supply, instead of idling the 
time in riotous living in any of the comfortless and 
expensive towns of California. 

It was a strange spectacle thus so suddenly pre- 
sented to the staid officers of the honorable Hudson's 
Bay Company, these curious characters on their sin- 
gular errand, springing from so miraculous an event — 
exceedingl}^ strange, and it is no wonder that the simple- 
minded, methodical traders were somewhat confused 
by it. But though thus isolated, knowing little of 
what was going on in the great world without, and 
accustomed to traditionary rote in their business 
transactions, their instinctive shrewdness did not de- 
sert them. 

"These rough-looking miners," writes Finlaj'son, 
"landed here from their vessels, which entered the 
harbor early in 1849. I took them first to be pirates, 
and ordered our men to prepare for action. 1, how- 
ever, entered into conversation with them, and finding 
who they were, was satisfied as to their friendship 
for us. They had leather bags, full of gold nuggets, 
which they offered to me in exchange for goods. At 
this time I had never seen native gold in my life, 
and was doubtful whether to take it or not. Having 
heard about pure gold being malleable, I took one of 
the pieces to our blacksmith shop, ordered the smith 



182 YALE AT^D HOPE ESTABLISHED 

and his assistant to hammer away at it on the anvil, and 
finding that it answered the description by flattening 
out as thin as a wafer, I offered to take it at eleven 
dollars per ounce, in exchange for goods. This offer 
was accepted readily, and as I could not go back from 
my word, the trade opened on this basis. I would 
then have been better satisfied had they complained 
of the low rate, but no complaints were made. I 
therefore thought I had made a mistake. I traded, 
however, all they had, and was doubtful about the cor- 
rectness of the transaction until the express I sent 
to the Columbia River to head-quarters came back 
with the intelligence that the gold was satisfactory, 
and also the rate at which I had traded it. Other 
factors followed, so that we had a good remittance of 
gold that year to send to England, in addition to our 
furs." 

The Hudson's Bay Company, on and in the vicin- 
ity of the lower Columbia, were in a position to de- 
rive great advantages from this gold discovery. Not 
so great, indeed, as if they had held their post at 
Yerba Buena, yet their profits were very greatly 
swelled thereby. Prior to 1846, they had placed a 
post at CajDe Disappointment, consisting of a dwelling 
and a storehouse, with which they claimed one mile 
square of land; there was the fishing-station at Pillar 
Bock, where salmon in large quantities were cured; 
there were the granaries at Coweeman, where the 
Cowlitz enters the Columbia, the warehouses and 
wharf at Champoeg, and the mills above Fort Van- 
couver; their cattle had increased abundantly, and 
their farming lands had become widely extended ; they 
had their own ships in which to send away their prod- 
uce, and all under the most perfect system and the 
strictest control.* 

Anderson was appointed to the Colville district 

* And yet Douglas testified before the joint commission at Victoria, H. B. 
Co. Ev. , H. B. Co. Claims, 59, that ' the dividends on the general profits of 
the Hudson's Bay Company were not appreciably affected by the discovery 
of gold in Califoruia; ' which, if true, shows a large falling-oflf in the fur trade. 



EFFECT OF GOLD ON MEN. 183 

in 1848. "It was there," he writes, "that I first got 
notice of the discovery of gold in CaHfornia in a pri- 
vate letter to Mr Douglas, who had just returned 
from a trip to the Sandwich Islands. Little excite- 
ment, however, arose from this communication on the 
part of any one; and in fact, Mr Douglas himself 
seemed half incredulous of the report. A few montlis, 
however, served to dissipate this belief, and before 
the autumn of 1849 the whole country was ablaze. I 
myself felt fearful on my return from Langley in 
August of that year, lest every man should leave me. 
By prudent management, however, and possessing, I 
Hatter myself, the confidence of my men, I contrived 
to confirm them in their allegiance, and retained their 
services until their contracts were fully expired, a 
period of some two years. In this resjDcct I was 
exceptionally fortunate, for while my men, some thirty 
in number, adhered to me faithfully, the other posts 
lower down the river, including Fort A^ancouver, in 
which about one hundred and fifty men had been sta- 
tioned, were almost deserted, and Indian laborers were 
hired to supply the deficiency. 

"It is almost impossible to realize to the mind the 
intense excitement which at times prevailed. Gold 
appeared to be almost, as it were, a drug in the mar- 
ket, and more than one of the French Canadian ser- 
vants who had left Vancouver under the circumstances 
mentioned, returned the following spring with accu- 
mulations varying from $30,000 to 140,000. It is 
needless, however, to add that the large amounts of 
treasure thus collected with so nmch facility, united 
with the habits of extravagance which the unexpected 
possession of wealth engendered, speedily disappeared. 
The men who had thus dissipated their possessions, 
sanguine of their capacity to replace them with equal 
facility as before, returned to California only to find 
that the field of their operations was fully occupied 
by others, who, in the mean while, had flocked in, and 
that their chance was gone." 



184 YALE AND HOPE ESTABLISHED- 

Mr Anderson would have been yet more confounded 
had he known that at that moment, in the very dis- 
trict he was then superintending, this precious metal 
was so abundant as some day to cause a stir which 
should rank among the prominent mining excitements 
of the period. 

When gold was found at Colville, the Hudson's Bay 
Company had on Thompson River a small farm and 
a trading-fort. As Fort Colville was situated some 
twenty miles south of the boundary, that establish- 
ment was removed northward across the line, in order 
to avoid paying United States duties on English 
goods. It was still called Fort Colville after its re- 
moval. 



CHAPTER, XI. 

ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AND NANAIMO. 
1849-1852. 

A New Factor, Coal — The Existence of This Mineral Known from the 
Earliest Times — Pacific Coal-fields — Discovery at Beaver Har- 
bor — The Quackolls akd the Fort McLoughlin Blacksmith — Tol- 
MiE Appears — The Notable John Di^nn— Warre and Vavasour 
Report the Discovert — Which Attracts the Attention of Govern- 
ment—Fort RuTERT Built — Muir and his Scotch Miners A-RRn- e — 
Another Arrival — Examinations and Tests — Failure at Fort 
Rupert — Discovery of Coal at Nanaimo Harbor — Another Black- 
smith Story — McKay to the Proof — Muir Moves from Fort Rupert 
— Fort Nanaimo Built — Visit of Douglas — Minor Discoveries. 

And now appears another factor in that progres- 
sional power which seems destined shortly to un- 
dermine the sovereignty of the fur-traders in the 
Northwest, and to drive them still farther back toward 
the inliospitable Arctic — coal ; a factor of civilization, 
contributed direct by mother earth, second only to 
atyriculture, and althouQfh not so immediate or demon- 
strative as gold, yet in truth far more potential. 

The officers of the Hudson's Bay Company were 
intelligent and observant men. It was part of their 
profession to have their eyes open as they tramped 
the forests, and the resources and possibilities of the 
country whose sovereignty they swaj^ed was never a 
matter of indifference to them; hence, almost from 
the beginning, they were aware of the presence of 
coal in certain localities. But as they had no im- 
mediate use for it, and as they were constitutionally 
and corporately reticent, they said little about it. 



1S6 ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AND NANAIMO. 

All through the interior, all along the coast, on 
both sides of Johnson and Georgia straits, on both 
sides of the Columbia from the Willamette to the 
ocean, in the Willamette and Cowlitz valleys, on the 
coast and in the mountains of southern Oregon, in 
eastern Oregon, on Queen Charlotte Islands and the 
mainland district of Nass-Skeena adjacent, at inter- 
vals in large or insignificant quantities, coal croppings 
were seen. 

Wood being abundant and always at hand, and 
charcoal being for the most part used by the company's 
blacksmiths, there was little necessity for drawing 
from the deposits around them. Indeed, it was found 
easier and cheaper for such posts as did not burn 
charcoal, particularly for those accessible to the ocean, 
to bring from England the small quantity required 
by the blacksmiths, than to dig for it; but where it 
was known to be convenient, and natives could be 
employed to bring it in, it was obtained upon the 
spot. 

The existence of coal in considerable quantities at 
Beaver Harbor, where later Fort Rupert was estab- 
lished, was made known to the officers of the Hudson's 
Bay Company in 1835. 

It happened in this wise; A party of QuackoUs 
from the north end of Vancouver Island were at Fort 
McLoughlin trading, when one day, being of an in- 
quiring turn of mind, they strolled into the black- 
smith shop, and stood watching intently the movements 
of the smith, as he drew from the fire the incandescent 
metal and hammered it into shape upon the anvil. 
Presently they saw him take from a little pile near 
by some hard sooty substance, and lay it on the fire, 
which under pressure of the bellows glowed with 
intenser satisfaction over its crackling food. Their 
curiosity was more than ever excited. Crowding- 
round the furnace, they saw the black substance trans- 
formed to living heat. Then they went to the pile, 



COAL AT BEAVER HARBOR. 187 

and picking up some of the lumps, turned them over, 
rubbed them in their hands, broke them, bit them, 
then threw them down with a questionable grunt. 

"AVhat is that ? " they demanded. 

"Stuff to make the fire burn," answered the good- 
natured smith. 

*' What do you call it 1 " 

-Coal" 

" How is it made ? " 

*' It is dug out of the ground." 

''Where do you get it ? " 

''It is brought over from the other side of the 
great salt sea; a six months' journey and more it 
makes before it gets here." 

Another more prolonged grunt, as of relief fol- 
lowed this colloquy. Falling back before the sparks 
which again Hew from the anvil, they were soon in 
warm and gesticulating converse among themselves. 
Soon, however, their voices subsided. Then over 
their sombre Cyclopean features gradually dawned a 
smile, which soon stretched into a loud guffaw, abso- 
lutely startling in a savage. And when to this they 
added their former antics, now redoubled, the black- 
smith stood amazed, and wondered if indeed they 
w^ere insane or drunk. 

"White men are very wise!" they cried, in uncouth 
irony. "The great spirit tells them everything, and 
gives them strength for cunning contrivances. The 
red man knows nothing; he is poor, and the great 
spirit is ashamed of having made him ; and yet lie is 
not such a fool as to bring soft black stone so great a 
distance when it may be had at his very door." 

The blacksmith stopped his work and called Tol- 
mie and other officers of the fort, to whom the 
Quackolls explained themselves more fully, telling 
how in different places in their country that same black 
stone was found in hillocks at or near the surface, and 
that the quantit}' of it was very great. 

Word was sent to Fort Vancouver, and in due time 



188 ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AND NANAIMO. 

McLouglilin ordered the Beaver to stop on one of 
her upward voyages, at the place indicated by the 
Quackolls, and ascertain the truth of their report, 
which was done. Duncan Finlayson was chief factor 
in charge at the time, and of the party was John 
Dunn, who reports: "Mr Finlayson, with a party of 
the crew, went on shore, leaving me in the ship to 
conduct the trade; and after some inquiries and a 
small distribution of rewards, found, from the natives, 
that the original account given at Fort McLough- 
lin was true. The coal turned out to be of excel- 
lent quality, running in extensive fields, and even in 
clumpy mounds, and most easily worked all along that 
part of the country."^ The place where the steamer 
anchored was first called McNeill Harbor in honor 
of her captain, and afterward Beaver Harbor after 
the vessel herself 

Indeed, the first use the company found for coal, 
except what little the blacksmiths required, was not 
until after the arrival of the steamer; and even then 
the necessity was not actual ; for we have frequent 
and abundant proof that for several seasons after en- 
tering the service wood was employed for her furnace ; 

^ John Dunn was a stupid observer, and an exceedingly desultory writer. 
I give the date as nearly as I can decipher it. His book, History of the Oregon 
Territory, was published in London in 1844. The information given is thrown 
together in a confused mass, with but little regard to chronological or other 
order. The i^reface informs us that the writer was eight years in the com- 
pany's service, but when he came to the coast and when he left it we are not 
informed. The Ganymede brought him, and he remaineil for a year after his 
arrival at Fort Vancouver, in the capacity of assistant storedieeper. Ander- 
son inform us, Hist. Northwest Coast, MS., 17, that Dunn was of the party 
which went to establish Fort McLoughlin in 1833. Thus by many careful com- 
parisons with reliable authors I am able in most instances to determine about 
the date of his several events. It is to be deplored that one who should suflfer 
himself to -svrite a book at all should perform the task so poorly. ' Mr Dunn's 
book was written with the same view as his letters to the Times newspaper, 
namely, to draw the attention of this country to the value of Oregon and the 
encroachments which the Americans made. Neither his disposition nor his 
temperament admitted of his telling tlie whole truth. Had he written his 
book himself, and had he not been compelled, according to his own statement, 
to burn his journal at Fort Vancouver by a regulation of the company pro- 
hibiting their servants from retaining any record of what passes in the country, 
his History of Oregon would be far more valuable than it is.' Parliament 
Papers, 3d April 1849, 58. 'There never was any such regulation.' Sir 
George Simpson, in House Commons Rept. H. B. Co., 1857, 100. 



JOHN DUNN. 189 

and even after she began the use of coal, such use 
was only i^artiaL It was the custom, at the several 
stations to have wood in readiness on the arrival of 
the steamer, while coal was not always convenient. 
Thus during her first northward voyage in 183G Dunn 
writes : "At Fort McLoughlin we took on board about 
twenty-six cords of wood for fuel, which was ready 
cut for us; this generally lasted us, when running on, 
between three and four days." And again on their 
return trip they wooded at Milbank Sound." 

Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour report, the 26th 
of October 1845, that ''there is coal in the neighbor- 
hood of Puget Sound, and on the Cowlitz Kiver ; the 
specimens used by the Hudson's Bay Company were 
obtained from the surface, and were probably on that 
account not found good."^ 

Thus the attention of government was directed to the 
coal at Vancouver Island, and at his request a report 
was made to J. A. Duntze, captain of the ship Fisgard, 
by Peter Skeen Ogden and James Douglas. The 
report is dated at Fort Vancouver the 7th of Septem- 
ber 1846, and may be relied upon as containing all 
knowledge of the subject up to that time. 

Although the indications were that important strata 
existed along the entire north-eastern part of Van- 
couver Island, namely, from Cape Scott, its northern 
extremity, southward to latitude 50° 36', there was 
only one spot known as the coal-mine, and this was in 
McNeill Harl)or, in latitude 50° 39'.* 

There the beds, which were separated by layers of 
sandstone, were most distinctly visible upon the beach, 
where, for a mile or thereabouts, the waves had washed 

^William Fraser Tolmie claims all the credit due him in tliis coal discov- 
ery at Beaver Harbor when he says, Canadian Parijic Railwuy Routes, Int.: 
' At the H. B. post, Fort McLoughlin, Milbank Sound, having for two years 
incited the natives to search for that mineral, he had the good fortune in 1835 
to ascertain the existence on the north-east shore of Vancouver Island of good 
bituminous coal, which was tested less than a year after on board the com- 
pany's new steamer, Bmver, just out from London. ' 

•* House Comirnns Rrf.nms to Three Addresses, 7. 

* This according to the report, and not in accordance with the facta. 



190 ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AND NANAIMO. 

away the incumbent mould, leaving the seams clearly 
exposed, particularly at low water. Likewise a rivu- 
let running eastward across the bed exposed the 
strata for three quarters of a mile back from the 
shore. The depth of the bed was unknown, as it had 
been penetrated but three feet. Coal, however, had 
been obtained by passing vessels, the natives for a 
small compensation cheerfully lending their assistance 
in loading.^ 

There were a few men employed by the Hudson's 
Bay Company at this time in opening this mine, but 
from lack of proper implements they made slow prog- 
ress. The quality of the coal was not highly spoken 
of The substrata, however, were better than the sur- 
face lumps, which exposure had deprived of their bitu- 
men. None which they had been able thus far to 
obtain could be used in the company's forges, but for 
steam-vessels it had been found very serviceable. 
Ogden and Douglas concluded their letter with the 
suggestion that if the government intended making 
available this coal for its navy, it would be necessary 
to establish works, keep on hand a supply, and pro- 
tect operations with a sufficient force from depreda- 
tions by the natives, who were there numerous and 
bold. But first of all, the directors of the Hudson's 
Bay Company in London must be consulted, after 
which all would be plain and easy for the subordinate 
officers on this coast. 

Upon receipt of this letter. Captain Duntze directed 
G. T. Gordon, commander of her majesty's steam-sloop 
Cormorant, to proceed to McNeill Harbor and inquire 
into the matter. Arrived at the mine, Gordon made 
known his wishes to the natives through one Sang- 
ster, who informed him how to proceed. A tub 
which would hold about six hundred pounds was 

^ ' On one occasion when we employed them for that purpose, they brought 
in upwards of 90 tons in a few days, which they dug with hatchets and other 
inconvenient implements, and there is no doubt that with proper excavating 
tools they would have done the work much more expeditiously.' Letter of 
Ogden and Douglas, in House of Commons Return to Three Addresses, 6. 



GORDON AT McNEILL HARBOR. 191 

slung from the foreyard. Presently canoes laden with 
coals appeared, which hourly increased in number 
during the several days' stay of the vessel at that 
port. As the canoes came alongside, each in its turn, 
the tub was lowered and quickl}^ filled. Each tub 
was paid for as it was hauled up, in trinkets of little 
value. In this manner sixty-two tons, at a cost not to 
exceed four shillings a ton, including presents to 
chiefs, were taken on board in less than three days. 

Gordon then went ashore, and after digging a little 
amongst the coal-beds, fell to naming things. In 
honor of the first lord of the admiralty, the peninsula 
forming the north-west part of McNeill Harbor was 
called Ellenborouofh ; a cove eio-ht miles to the north- 
westward he named Baillie Hamilton's Bay, because 
the secretary of the admiralty was so called, and had 
patronage. A fine seam of coal was found at this 
last-mentioned place, which Gordon surmised was con- 
nected with those at McNeill Harbor. The quality 
Avas pronounced fair for steamer purposes, and from 
the appearance of the country the seams were thought 
to extend well inland. All which mformation m 
due time reaching Sir George Sejnnour, rear-admiral 
commanding the Collingivood, it was by him for- 
warded from Valparaiso on the 8th of January 1847 to 
the admiralty. As the Oregon question was now 
settled, the Cormorant had been withdrawn from the 
north, and to any other part of that station it would 
be cheaper to ship coal from England. Nevertheless, 
these mines could but add importance to the island of 
Vancouver, and a box of specimens was sent forward 
by the Frolic homeward bound about that time. 

Might it not be better for the fur-traders to turn 
coal-miners at once than to wait for other results to flow 
from the pryings of government? True, they had but 
little use for such an article at present; but California 
might take some if the reports proved true that gold, 
in paying quantities, had been found there, and that 



192 



ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AND NANAIMO. 



a line of steamers had been established between the 
east and west coasts by way of Panamd,. Hence it 
was determined in due time to open operations at the 
northern end of Vancouver Island. 

AVilliam McNeilP was sent thither in his steamer 
Beaier, with orders to establish a post, George Blen- 
kinsop being second in command. McNeill had often 
been there, and knew the place and people w^ell. Land- 




NOKTHERN FOKTS. 

ing at McNeill Harbor, which I shall hereafter call 
Beaver Harbor, with forty men, whites, half-breeds, 
and Kanakas, during the summer of 1849 work was 
vigorously prosecuted, which resulted in due time in 

^ Often mentioned in my History of the Northwest Coast as captain of the brig 
Llama and the steamer Beaver. He was a native of Boston done into a British 
subject and Hudson's Bay Company officer on the Northwest Coast. He once 
took a run to London conmianding the company's ship Nereid, and was for a 
time in charge of Fort Simpson. See Anderson's Northwest Coast, MS., 70. 



MICHEL MUIR. 193 

a quadrangular stockade, with interior gallery, two 
bastions mounting four nine -pounders, and the usual 
storehouses, workshops, officers' quarters, and laborers' 
cottages. The establishment was called Fort Rupert. 
A smaller stockade protected the garden and out- 
buildings. Although established more as a protection 
in developing coal-deposits. Fort Rupert was never- 
theless a trading-post. In this respect it was made 
partially to take the place of Fort McLoughlin on 
Milbank Sound, whence, although as we have seen 
the latter post was abandoned in 1843, certain articles 
yet remaining were transferred to Fort Rupert.'' 

Fort-building was still in progress when in Septem- 
ber 1849 the Scotchman Muir, with wife, daughters, 
and sons, arrived at Fort Rupert. Among these was 
Michel, born at Kilmarnock in 1840, to whom I am 
personally indebted for this account.^ 

The elder Muir, with his family and a party of 
miners, was brought from Scotland by the Hudson's 
Bay Company for the purpose of opening coal-mines 
at this point. At the time of Muir's arrival, the na- 
tives were engaged at Saquash cutting out surface 
coal for the company. So inferior was the quality, of 
loose and open structure as it was, and interspersed 
with slate, that no remunerative market could be 
found for it. A shaft to the depth of ninety feet was 
sunk by the Muirs, who, after further examination, 
pronounced the seam too small to be workable. 

This shaft was six miles from Saquash, and half a 

■ Either Fort McLoughlin was never wholly abandoned, although it is dis- 
tinctly so stated by several authorities, or else it was abandoned and rebccupied 
several times. WMting of IS43, Finlayson, //(■6>^ T. /., MS., 21, says: 'After 
the abandonment of Fort McLoughlin on Milbank Sound, the Beaver, with 
the officers and men at that place, with those from the fort at Tako, proceeded 
to the south point of Vancouver Island, 'and built Fort Camosun. Anderson, 
JS'orthwcttt Coast, MS., 22, affirms that 'the post at Milbank was afterward 
abandoned; or rather transferred to its present position at Fort Ilupert. 
But subsequently the company found it advisable to reestablish a small 
trading-post on the old site of Foi-t McLoughlin, which continued to be oc- 
cupied in 1878.' See further on Fort Ilupert, i>arre<<-Ze7inar(rs Travels, Gl -8; 
Grant, in Lo7)d. Georj. Soc.,Jour., xxvii. 275; Michel Muir, in British Columbia 
Sketches, MS., 20; bean's Settlement, V.I., MS., 19. 

»See Brit. Col Sketches, MS., 20-5. 
Hist. Beit. Col. 13 



194 ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AND NANAIMO. 

mile from the fort. Troubles arose witli the natives, 
who demanded pay for the land or its product; and 
when the white men refused, the savages surrounded 
the pit, threatening to kill all present should they 
persist in their robbery. Other complications arose, 
in which Blenhinsop was unpleasantly conspicuous, 
McNeill having departed, leaving him in charge.^ 
The result was that, excepting the elder Muir and 
certain members of his family, the men all left for 
California. 

Society at Fort Rupert at this time was a little 
startling to European nerves. The day after the 
Muirs arrived, there appeared in the harbor sixteen 
war-canoes, whose occupants were exceedingly happy. 
Victory had crowned their recent efforts against their 
enemies, and sweet content sat on every barbaric face 
there present. Not that the white new-comers had 
never heard of war, nor joined in shout of victory, 
but the American way was a trifle different from the 
European way. That was all ; but it was enough to 
shock the sensitiveness of those unaccustomed to sylvan 
slaughter. For instance, after landing and setting on 
each of sixteen poles one human head, taken from 
each canoe as a specimen, the warriors first learned 
that their isle was honored by the presence of a white 
woman, to whom it was the custom of her people to 
show courtesy. There was nothing mean about them. 
Though the coal-diggers had refused to pay for what 
they seemed to prize so highly, the elated redskins would 
freely give this female stranger of their spoils of war. 
Inviting Mrs Muir to the ghastly display, they begged 
her to accept her choice of any two. Where would 
be found in any primeval centre of civilization such 
delicate attention, such marked consideration toward 

3 ' Young Blenkinsop was then left in command, but he caused much dis- 
satisfaction among the miners, putting three in irons, or in jail, because they 
would not submit to his arlntrary orders and unreasonable regulations, which 
he endeavored to force upon them without authority.' Muir, in Brit. Col. 
Sketches, MS., 21. 



I 



COAL-MINING. 195 

a female visitor, from savagism? Their latest, best, 
most highly prized iDossession, the bloody trophy of 
thsir priceless success, they freely offered. Doubtless 
the simple-hearted warriors, accustomed only to the 
restrictei killing of their foes, would have been as 
overwhelmingly shocked on witnessing the slaughtered 
thousands of a European battle-field as was Mrs 
Muir on beholding these poor sixteen trophies of 
aboriginal prowess. 

Mr Gilmour continued the first Muir shaft to the 
depth of one hundred and twenty feet. He likewise 
instituted a thorough examination of the surface, and 
finally arrived at the same conclusion, namely, that 
coal-mining at Fort Rupert was a failure.^'' 

Governor Blanshard visited the place in March 
1850. He reported the mines a failure, and said that 
the men could scarcely be induced to work at all, 
being dissatisfied with their employers, and having few 
proper tools." Nevertheless, the ship England loaded 
here this year.^^ 

It was M'ell known that if at Fort Rupert coal-mining 
could not be successfully carried on, there were other 
places to try ; or even here something might yet be 
done. During the year 1851 more and better coal- 
mining machinery, with some twenty-five practical 
men, were brought from England in the ship Toryy 
chartered by the company for that purpose, and landed 
at Fort Rupert. ^^ But this had been ordered and 

" ' Anotncr bore was sunk directly at the back of Fort Rupert to a depth 
of 47i fathoms. Two other bores were sunk behind Fort Rupert, towards the 
interior: one, some four miles to the north-west, where the borers were stopped 
by loose quicksand at a depth of 30 fathoms; another, two mUes to the south- 
west, to a depth of 40 fatlioms; again, ten miles from Fort Rapert,_along the 
sea-coast, two bores were sunk through sandstone to depths of 47 and 47 i 
fathoms respectively, without any signs of workable coal; these were sunk 
at some distance back from the shore. Close to the shore two pits were sunk, 
one seventeen, the other 30 fathoms. The thickest vein struck did not exceed 
six inches.' Grant, in London Geo(j. Sac, Jour., xxvii. 276. 

" BlaiuihanVs Despaiche^, 2. 

^K^fuir, in Brit. VoL Sh'tches, MS., 22. 

'^An ollieer on board this vessel was Herbert George Lewis, who gave me 
tlie information, this being his second voyage from England in the company's 
service. See Brit. Col. Sketches, MS., 1, 2. 



198 ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT M:D NANAIMO. 

tlie men brought out before it Avas settled that there 
were no seams worth worhing in the region around 
Fort Rupert. The arrival of this re enforcement, how- 
ever^ was not inopportune, as we slipJl presently see. 
Prospects were better at Nanaimo; and thither in the 
spring of 1851 Muir proceeded with all his men and 
mining machinery, leaving Fort Rupert in possession 
of traders only.^^ 

The incidents attending the discovery of coal at 
Nanaimo are not unlike those at Beaver Bay.^^ 

One morning in December 1849, while Joseph W. 
-McKay, then prominent in the affairs of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company on the Northwest Coast, was en- 
gaged in the ofHce at Fort Victoria, he was called 
aside by the foreman of the blacksmith shop, who 
informed him that an old Nanaimo chief, from the 
vicinity of what was then called Protection Island, 
had entered the shop a short time previous to have 
his gun repaired. While waiting, and watching oper- 
ations, he noticed the men replenishing the fire with 
coal. Picking up some of the lumps, he observed 
them closely, and finally remarked that there was 
plenty of such stone where he lived. Proceeding 
immediately to the shop, McKay entered into con- 
versation with the Indian, who reiterated what he 
had said to the blacksmith, giving further j)articulars 
and with more exactness. McKay then said that if 
he would bring him some of the pieces of the stufi", 
he should have a bottle of rum, and his gun repaired 
for nothing, which magnanimous offer the Nanaimo 
accepted. He was poor and feeble; the gun would 
help to procure him food, and the rum would warm 
his stiffened joints, and dispel his misery for a moment. 

^* * There are now no miners at Fort Rupert, ' MTites Grant, Lomlon Georj. 
Soc, Jour., xxvii. 276, in 1854, 'and the establishment consists of twenty 
officers and men. ' See also Deans Settlement V. I., MS., 19. 

^^ That one is not taken from the other, I am satislied. John Dunn tells 
his story, not without due regard to dramatic effect it is true, but in a manner 
wholly original. ^Ir McKay states his facts clearly, concisely, and I am very 
sure, truthfully; nor is it likely that he M-as familiar with Dunn's story. 



ANOTHER DISCOVERY. 197 

What did it matter if there were milhons in it for 
the white man; civilization would soon get it in any 
event, as it was getting everything else, and upon 
terms equivalent, namely, a bottle of rum and a gun 
repaired in return for a coal-mine. 

The ancient aboriginal went his wa}'', and the fur- 
trader went his ; and as nothing further was seen or 
heard of the chief at the fort, little more was thought 
of the Nanaimo coal discovery. But the old savage 
had not forgotten his promise. All during the cold 
winter he had lain sick, very near death's door, think- 
ing of the rum, which did not greatly comfort him. 
Reviving from his illness with returning spring, he 
went to work, and surely enough one day early in 
April he appeared in Victoria Harbor with his canoe 
loaded with coal. 

It was immediately taken to the forge, and ex- 
amined with no small curiosity by all present. On 
being tested by the smith, it was pronounced of ex- 
cellent quality. Then McKay remembered his prom- 
ise. A Hudson's Bay Company's officer always keeps 
his word. The bottle of rum was given to the na- 
tive. 

A prospecting party was fitted out at once; and 
])lacing himself at the head of it, McKay landed 
near^where the town of Nanaimo now stands, about 
the 1st of May 1850.^^ Several days were then spent 
in a careful examination of the country for miles 
around After which, on the 8th day of May, the 
Douglas vein, which is still being worked at this 
writing, was located by McKay. And it was from 
this very spot that was loaded the canoe of the old 

1* ' The coal at Xanaimo was first discovered b)' ilr Joseph McKay in 
May 1850, who was directed to it by the Indians of the neighborhood.' Grant, 
in Louilon <u'o</. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 277. The particulars of the discovery are 
from Mr McKay himself, furnished through Mr Petroff while on his expedi- 
tion in niy behalf to Alaska in 1878. The dictation was taken at Fort Simp- 
son, and is entitled Recollections of a Cliief Trader in the HwhoiiH Bay Com- 
P'linj, by JoseiA William McKay. The manuscript is exceedingly well written, 
clear, concise, and very interesting and important. !Mr McKay is remarka- 
bly intelligent, and besides, a most courteous gentlemen. A brief biograph- 
ical sketch is given elsewhere. 



i 



198 ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AND NANAIMO. 

chief who carried the first intelUgence and the first 
specimens of this famous mine to Fort Victoria. 

On his return to Victoria, McKay made a circum- 
stantial and favorable report, and it was forthwith 
determined to make practical avail of the important 
discovery ; but owing to other business, the mine was 
for a time neglected. It appears that the natives had 
first discovered a small seam about eight inches in 
thickness, on the undulating sandstone surface af New- 
castle Island; then on the opposite shore of Com- 
mericial Inlet they noticed more of the black stuff, 
which proved to be an outcrop of the same seam, which 
at this latter point was but three and a half feet thick, 
though its general thickness was six or seven feet.^^ 

The natives took two hundred tons from Newcastle 
Island by the 15th of September. On the 17th, 
Gilmour with ten experienced miners began a pit^^ 
at the north-west extremity of Nanaimo Harbor. 
Another spot where the seam was six or seven feet 
thick was struck, which was afterward worked in 
several parallel galleries.^^ 

Muir arrived with the men and machinery from 
Fort Rupert in the spring of 1851, as I have before 
related. The steamer Otter brought them thither, and 
Douglas met them there. The machinery was landed 
and set up, and temporary measures adopted for de- 
fence. Muir's force was small, and should the natives 
grow jealous or mercenary, as at Fort Kupert, they 
could do little that year ; nevertheless they prospected 
and dug heartily, wasting no time.^° 

But it was not until 1852 that work was begun in 

^' Eight or ten inches of fire-clay ran through the centre. The direction 
of the seam was to the south-west, and the dip 45°. 

1^ A shaft of 50 feet passed through 12 feet of alluvium, 8 feet of sand- 
stone, and 30 feet of slate. Grant is loose in regard to dates. McKay, Eec, 
MS., II, says 'the mine was not actually opened until August 1852.' 

^* ' The seam here runs nearly level, with a dip of only some seven degrees 
to the south-west; the greatest quantity of coal that has been raised from it 
■was at the rate of 120 tons per week with ten regular miners.' Grant, in 
London Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 277. This was prior to 1854. 

'■"^ 'About 1851 Mr Muir started the Nanaimo coal-mines, which were suc- 
cessful.' Muir, in BrU. Col. Sketches, MS., 24. 



THE DOUGLAS ON THE GROUND. 199 

earnest at Xanaimo. Arriving on the 19tli of August, 
after diligent search with pick and shovel, McKay 
found the Douglas seam on a peninsula at the northern 
end of the harbor, and the men were put at digging, 
this making the fourth place "^ at which work was done 
at an early day. Satisfied with his investigations, Mc- 
Kay erected a fortress, with all the necessary build- 
ings, and called the place Fort Nanaimo." Thus was 
the new industry of coal-mining taken in hand at 
Nanaimo by the fur company, and pressed forward 
with uncommon energy. Before the expiration of 
1853 two thousand tons were shipped from this point, 
half of which was taken out by the natives. The first 
sent hence to San Francisco was in May of that year 
by the ship William. The company's price at Nanaimo 
was then eleven dollars; at San Francisco the coal 
brought twenty-eight dollars a ton.^^ 

In 1853 James Douglas visits this mine in state. 
Leaving Victoria in the propeller Otter, with the 
Mary Dan in tow, on the 18th of August he anchors 
before Fort Nanaimo at precisely twenty minutcis 
past eight the same day.^* Early next morning he is 
out examining the mine and buildings about the 
fort. McKay and his men are highly complimented 
by the chief. ''A prodigious quantity of work, for 
the hands employed," he writes, " has been accom- 
plished here; the place has quite the appearance of 
a little village. The mines have cost a great deal 
or labor and other outlay. The mine-shaft is now 

'^ 'These were all the same seam of coal, which is called the Douglas ' 
Orant, in London Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 278. 

■^'■'See Dou'jlas' Private Papers, MS., ser. ii. 50. Though not as pretentious 
as some other establishments, it is dignified by Douglas with the name of fort. 
It might, perhaps, more properly be called a bastion, 

^^ For general description of mi'ies at Nanaimo, see Newlxrry's Geol. Jiept., 
65-7, in Pacific R. Ii. Bepi., vi.; Horetzhjs Canada on the Pacijic, 170; Raw- 
linijs' Coifederaiion o/ Bnt. If. A. Provtncc.% 122. 

^*It was with just such ponderous particularities that Douglas did every- 
thing. After a detailed description of an insigniticant trip, he concludes in 
these words: ' Made Lighthouse Point at dusk, and came to an anchor off the 
Fort of Nanaimo at 8:20 in the evening, having been 9 hours and 40 miautea 
under weigh.. ' Doui/laa' Privcte Papers, MS., ser. ii. 50. 



200 ESTABLISHING FORTS RUPERT AXD NANAIMO. 

full of water; that called McGreggor's headings and 
north gallery give the miners employment at present. ' 
Thence he is pulled to Newcastle Island, and visits 
the outcroppings, observes the perpendicular cliifs and 
fine white sandstone in regular beds and on edge 
underlying beds of conglomerate. The 20th he ex- 
amines with much interest a salt-spring which rises 
in the bed of a fresh- water brook, now nearly dry.'^ 
"The coal-field between Chase Kiver and Newcastle 
Island," he writes, "has been proved, it being Mr 
Gilmour's opinion, founded on the trials he has made, 
that coal may be found anywhere in that district." 
The 22d, "walked from the establishment to the 
coal crop at the head of Commercial Inlet, into which 
a gallery sixty feet long has been cut." Thence to 
Chase River, where is a gallery of forty feet; and so 
on. Leaving Nanaimo on the 24th, he surveys the 
coast to Valdes Inlet, and then returns to Victoria. 

About this time, 1852-3, coal was discovered at 
Bellingham Bay by two axemen, who were cutting 
logs for a saw-mill. In the up-torn roots of a fallen 
trees, on the side of a bank, they first saw pieces 
which led to an examination of the ground and the 
finding of a seam several feet thick. A claim was 
entered, and shortly after sold at San Francisco for 
$10,000.^^ Several companies were formed to work 
this and adjoining claims, among which the Puget 
Sound Mining Company and the Mamoosie Mine 
were conspicuous.^^ 

Other coal deposits attracting attention prior to 

2^ The spring yields about two gallons of water per minute, or 2,880 gallons 
in twenty-four hours. It yields about a pound of salt to a gallon, which, at 
sixty pounds to the bushel, would make a daily yield of forty-eight bushels of 
salt.' Dowjlcts' Private Papers, MS., ser. n. 52. 

2^ ' Altogether about 140 tons of coal had been exported from Bellingham 
Bay up to 1st January 1854.' Grant, in London Geog. Soc, Jb?<r., xxvii. 315. 

"'■"• ' Another bed a little to the north of this, belonging to Captain Fauntle- 
roy and others, presented much better indications. Its thickness is sixteen 
feeb four inches, and the coal brighter and freer from impurities than the 
other. A small quantity got out here sold in Francisco for §23 per ton.' 
Gibhs, in Stevens' Pac. P. P. Pept., i. 473. 



t 



OTHER COAL DEPOSITS. 201 

1854 were those between Port San Juan and Cape 
Bonilla;'^^ in the country back of Barclay Sound ;-^ near 
the coast west of Soke Inlet ;^'' at several points on 
the western shore of Vancouver Island,^^ and on the 
mainland opposite.^" The deposits on Queen Char- 
lotte Islands attracted attention at various times.^ 

''* ' It is, however, almost worthless, as, though it crops out on the sea- 
coast, there is no shelter for vessels near it.' Grant, in Lond. Geoff. Soc, Jour., 
xxvii. 285. 

■•*' ' There is no truth in the reports which have been circulated of there 
being coal on Barclay Sound; the Indians, however, describe some coal as 
existing at Muuahfcih, in the country of the Cojucklesatuch, some three days' 
journey into the interior, at the back of Barclay Sound.' Grant, in Lomt. 
Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 287. 

** ' Traces of coal have been found on a small river called by the natives 
Quaachuka, which here discharges itself into the straits.' Grant, in Lond. 
Geotj. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 284. Few of the seams were more than one inch in 
thickness. 

^1 ' At Nespod, a little north of Nootka, coal is reported by tlie Indians. 
Nespod is called Port Brooks on the charts. At Koskeemo, north of Nespod 
and opposite to Beaver Harbor, a seam of coal two feet in thickness has also 
been discovered.' Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 288. Grant's Kos- 
keemo is Quatsino Sound. See Jiichardson, in Geol. Sur, Canada, 1871-2, 76. 

*2 'Between Burrard Canal and Home Sound, i. e., on the southern shore 
of Home Sound, close to the entrance, a small seam of coal has been found. ' 
Gra?it, in Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 314. 

23 ' As early as 1852 the brig Recovery, Captain Mitchell, the vessel that 
was once the Orbit, was there for coal.' Olt/mpia Club Convs., MS., 3-4. 'An- 
thracite is kno-mi to exist at "^'kidegate Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, and 
a seam of the same kind of coal is seen cropping out on the mainland opnosite, 
about forty miles distant. The extent of these deposits is not known, but 
specimens have been sent to San Francisco which were of good quality, and 
in 1871 there were 565 tons of it imported.' Macfarlane's Coal Retjions of 
America, 574. 



CHAPTER XII. 

GROWTH GRANT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND TO THE HUDSON'S 
BAY COMPANY 

1849. 

Splrit of Monopoly — ^The ABVENTtTRERS of England More Jealous of 
British Subjects than of Foreigners — Colonization to be Retarded' 
BY Favoring rather than by Opposing It— The Grant Solicited as 
Early as 1837 — Woes of the Monopoly— Failure to Obtain the 
Grant at This Time — Fur-hunting and Settlement Antagonistic — 
The Liquor Traffic — The Company Apply for the Grant — Startling 
Proposal — Influence of United States Acquisitions on British 
Pacific Territory— Piety a Plea for Power — The Fur-trade and 
Colonization again— The Draft Perfected — The Mainland — Pre- 
amble AND Grant — Conditions of Grant — Differences of Opinion 
respecting the Wisdom of the Measure. 

Now tliat the Northwest Coast between Fuca 
Strait and the Russian possessions was wholly and 
indisputably their own, a vast territory without a 
government, too vast and too important to be held 
absolutely by a commercial corporation, while the 
near south under the liberal policy of the United 
States government was so rapidly being settled by 
enterprising emigrants of their own Anglo-Saxon race, 
it behooved the ligislators and rulers of England and 
of England's colonies to cast a parental eye toward 
this very far away and very wild and very little 
Britain. 

The history of the treaty of 1846, which determined 
the dividing line between the possessions of Great 
Britain and those of the United States on the Pa- 
cific coast, having been given at length elsewhere in 
this work,^ it would be superfluous to repeat it here. 

^History of the Northwest Coaat. 

(202) 



SERIOUS QUESTIONS. 203 

That event safely over, soon we see the hand of the 
mother country again moving in Northwest Coast 
affairs; this time, however, confining her interest to 
her own pecuhar case, and in the capacity of patron 
rather than that of champion. 

Tlie question was what to do next. The country 
north of the lately defined United States boundary 
was a wilderness held by an association of British sub- 
jects under sanction of the British government, which 
had gone so far as to grant the occupants the privilege 
of exclusive trade with the natives for a period ex- 
piring in 1859. The question now was, Shall anything 
be done toward colonizing or settling the country, or 
any part of it, before the expiration of the fur com- 
pany's present privilege of exclusive trade, and if so, 
whati 

It so happened that about this time, namely, in 1846 
and 1847, the directors of the fur monopoly presented 
themselves before Lord Grey, quaking with fear lest 
American marauders should pursue them beyond the 
new boundary, and spoil their traffic in British Co- 
lumbia, as they had already done in Oregon. Lord 
Grey lent a favorable ear; and from this beginning 
arose important negotiations.^ 

Since the charter of Charles 11. to Prince Bupert 
in 1G70, the policy of the adventurers of England 
trading into Hudson's Bay had been, to say the least, 
exclusive. Not alone had they been fearful of the 
intrusion of foreigners, but most of all were they 
jealous of their own countrymen. 

During the first half-century of their occupancy of 
these hyperborean shores, they had been forced to 
battle French soldiery invading by sea; some of their 
forts had even been taken from them during these 
encounters. And later they had frequently been 
called upon to resist the encroachments of French 
fur-hunters from Canada. Wars with hereditary foes, 

^ Compare Hansard's Parliamentary Debates and Levi's Annals of Ih'Uish 
Legislation, passim. 



204 GRANT OF VAXCOUVER ISLAND. 

however, were never to be compared in point of hatred 
and disastrous results w^ith the rivalry between them 
and the Northwest Company. 

So in regard to settlement. The occupation of Ore- 
gon by emigrants from the United States had given 
them much anxiety, and they had exercised every 
means, but always within the bounds of justice and 
humanity, to stop this tide of population which would 
prove the total destruction of their traffic in those 
parts. Yet as in former encroachments and opposi- 
tion, the government and the people of the eastern 
American states gave them less serious concern than 
their own. The cause was obvious. The dividing line 
between the North American possessions of Great 
Britain and those of the United States they well 
knew their government would see properly drawn 
without assistance from them. The bounds of their 
dominion fixed they could easily regulate their busi- 
ness accordingly. They entertained no serious fear 
of being cramped for territory. But when England 
herself should attempt colonization on the Pacific, 
well might English fur-hunters look to their interests. 

It was now considered certain that United States 
territory on the western ocean would be speedily 
settled; that there would be within the limits of such 
territory, and as the result of such settlement, one or 
more large commercial towns conducting trade direct 
with the coast above and below, with the Hawaiian 
Islands, and with China; and that between the eastern 
and western seaboards there would be safe and free 
intercommunication. With so powerful and pro- 
gressive a people as neighbors, and with an over- 
crowded population at home, it was clearly evident 
that so broad and valuable a region as the British 
Pacific possessions could not always be kept solitary as 
the game-preserve of a commercial monopoly. And 
none saw this clearer than the monopolists themselves. 

Yet it w^as not by opposing colonization by any 
means, but rather by encouraging it, that the company 



BEFORE PARLIAJIENT. 205 

would attempt to control affairs for a time longer. 
If they could be constituted England's colonizers on 
the Pacific, then might they colonize after their own 
fashion, quickly or slowly — very slowly indeed, if such 
should prove their interest. Such advantage, indeed, 
had not been overlooked in arranging the terms of 
the last license of exclusive trade, the grant of 1838. 
AVhen in 1837 the company petitioned for a renewal 
of that grant, they sought extended privileges. In 
addition to a license of exclusive trade, they asked title 
to the land for purposes of colonization, urging their 
services in excluding settlers of other nations as a 
reason why they should have the management of set- 
tlers of their own nation. 

Both Sir J. H. Pelly, governor of the Hudson's 
Bay Company in England, and Sir George Simpson, 
governor of the company's affairs in America, after 
magnifying the hazardous efforts of the company to 
enrich itself, after lamenting the heavy losses sus- 
tained in keeping the country clear, alike of British 
subjects and foreigners, after gently chiding their be- 
nignant mother for neglecting that protection which 
it was their chief joy to see withheld, begged a fresh 
continuance of their misfortune, together with such 
hold upon the soil as should perpetuate tliem. The 
profits arising from the business, said they to parlia- 
ment, are no more than a fair return for the capi- 
tal employed; and the services rendered the mother 
country in securing her this commerce, which other- 
wise would fall to foreigners, demand further favors. 
Besides their twenty-two trading-depots on the west- 
ern slope, they have in the neighborhood of the 
Columbia large pastures filled with stock, and grain 
farms affording abundant supplies of every kind of 
agricultural product, and it is their intention to aug- 
ment such establishments so as to export wool, tal- 
low, and hides, and at the same time to afford a quiet 
home for retired servants of the company. Climate 
and sod are all that could be desired, they continued, 



206 GRANT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

but in order to justify the outlay necessary to the 
full furtherance of the company's plans^ protection, 
that is to say, monopoly, must be secured them; the 
natives, body and soul, must be theirs, likewise the 
soil, and every subject of Great Britain who dare in- 
trust his keej^ing to their arbitrary will. 

Cunningly as these proposals were advanced, in so 
far as they related to proprietorship in the soil they at 
this time failed. It was now pretty well understood 
by England, after dreaming over it for nearly two cen- 
turies, that the adventurers trading into Hudson's 
Bay were not unduly anxious to make settlements 
anywhere. In one instance only had they attempted 
or permitted such a measure, and that was employed 
as the deadliest engine for the breaking-up of a pow- 
erful rival. The Red Biver difficulties had opened 
the eyes of statesmen to the fatal effects of coloniza- 
tion on hunting-grounds. It was becoming a pretty 
well established fact that foxes, beavers, and native 
hunters do not dwell long in apple-orchards. Savagism 
is essential to a game-preserve a thousand miles square, 
and settlement of any kind is directly antagonistic to 
savagism. In a word, it was against the company's 
interests to have their forests cleared, and their Indian 
hunters demoralized by drink and civilized diseases. 
This they had well known from the first, and had 
managed their business accordingly. Nor are they to 
be specially blamed for adopting a self-protective pol- 
icy, which is no less the first law of corporations than 
of governments and individuals. 

Notwithstanding the very natural desire to post- 
pone the day of their downfall as far as possible, the 
Hudson's Bay Company w^ere not blind to the fact 
that the ultimate destiny, indeed, the near destiny of 
their Pacific coast, was colonization. It would soon 
prove as vitally important to them as to the British 
nation at large, in or out of British America. Their 
very existence, the preservation of their hunting- 



ARDENT SPIRITS. 207 

grounds to the northward, and between the ocean and 
the mountains, would soon depend upon their abihty 
to guard their coast against the inroads of foreign 
traders, who had always caused them much annoyance, 
and were now becoming more troublesome. By these 
lawless traders, many of whom w^ere from New Eng- 
land ports, the accursed taste for strong drink was 
kept alive among the natives. So long as there was a 
possibility of obtaining intoxicating liquor the Indians 
would trade for little else. They were wild for it, 
almost as insane in the desire as in the gratification. 
From hundreds of miles inland past the doors of the 
company's forts, they would bring their best skins 
down to the sea-shore, and there hold savage saturnalia 
as long as they lasted. There was no controlling them 
or controlling business so long as rum was sold upon 
the coast. It was as clearly to the interests of the 
monopolists, or license-holders, to prevent this de- 
moralizing traffic, as it was to the pecuniary profit 
of transient traders visiting the coast to indulge 
in it. 

Not alone were traders from the United States 
accused of selling liquors to tribes inhabiting British 
American territory, but the Hudson's Bay Company 
were charged with the like offence in disposing of 
strong drink to the Indians of the United States.^ 
However fatal the result to the poor Indian, the fur- 
trading policy of the time was essentially retaliatory, 
and although the truth of these charges was flatly 

'The question in 1849 was made one of ofBcial correspondence. On the 
8th of December Henry W. Sibley -svritcs Mr Clayton, asking a remonstrance 
to be laid before the British government, to prevent the introduction of 
ardent spirits into the Indian country. He pronounces it 'a fact which can be 
established by incontestable testimony.' This letter was forwarded to 
Abbott Lawrence, United States minister to Great Britain, who laid the com- 
plaint before Lord Palmerston. The matter was referred to tiic secretary of 
state for the colonies. Finally Earl Grey received a flat denial from Sir John 
Felly, and there the subject rested. Since the 13th of May 1842, when Sir 
George Simpson and Adolphus Etholin, governor of the Russian American 
colonies, signed at Sitka an agreement prohibiting the use of spirituous 
liquors in the Indian trade of their respective territories, that region had in a 
measure been free from this curse. But this agreement did not prevent resort 
to the forbidden traffic when competition with traders of other nationalities 
rendered it necessary. 



208 GRANT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 

denied on both sides, there is no doubt that both were 
guilty. ^ 

Again in 1846, when the much-agitated question of 
boundary was being settled, the subject of coloniza- 
tion was brought forward. As the right honorable 
Edward EUice, M. P., remarked to a select commit- 
tee of the house of commons — "Being in possession 
of the trade of the adjacent country under the license 
. . . the company applied to Lord Grey for protection 
in Vancouver Island, for fear of American marauders 
disturbing their possessions there." Earl Grey replied 
that the distance round Cape Horn was too far for 
even the long arm of his government conveniently to 
reach, and that the company must protect themselves. 
On the 7th of September a letter was addressed by 
the company to Earl Grey, stating that their estab- 
lishment on the south point of the island was annu- 
ally enlarging, and asking a grant of land. A long 
correspondence followed, and negotiations were begun. 
Then for nearly a year, that is, from March 1847 to 
February 1848, the matter rested. - From the modest 
first request, which was to be confirmed in the pos- 
session of the island only, the ideas of the company 
had gradually enlarged, until, as Sir J. H. Pelly ex- 
pressed himself in a letter to Earl Grey, the 5th of 
March 1847, the company were "willing to undertake 
the government and colonization of all the territories 
belonging to the crown in North America, and receive 
a grant accordingly." 

It was this startling proposal, opening the eyes of 
the government to the real designs of the company, 
which temporarily suspended negotiations. In Feb- 
ruary 1848, with more modest mein, they again came 
forward with the assurance that "placing the whole 
territory north of the 49th degree under one governing 
power would have simplified arrangements, but the 
company was willing to accept that part of the ter- 
ritory west of the Rocky Mountains, or even Van- 
couver Island alone; in fact, to give every assistance 



INEXORABLE NECESSITY. 209 

in its power to j^romote colonization." In a subsequent 
letter of the 4tli of March the same writer goes still 
further, and says: *'In every negotiation that may 
take place on this subject, I have only to observe 
that the company expect no pecuniary advantage 
from colonizing the territory in question. All moneys 
received for lands or minerals would be applied to 
purposes connected with the improvement of the 
country."* 

Accompanying this truly disinterested offer was a 
private letter of a somewhat different nature, which was 
nothing less than a request that the privileges possessed 
under the original grant of Rupert Land, giving the 
adventurers of England power to establish colonies, 
courts, and governments should be extended over the 
entire Northwest and Pacific territories. The magni- 
tude of the proposal at this juncture was alone enough 
to insure its defeat. It was at once decided by the 
government that if a grant were made at all, it should 
be confined to Vancouver Island. 

Besides the tide of emigration which since the 
treaty of 1846 was pouring into Oregon, the United 
States had lately acquired California, and this alone 
was more than sufficient to make that nation the 
dominant power upon the Pacific, even should there 
be no foundation in the reported gold discovery, rumors 
of which were now reaching British Columbia and 
England. And if gold was plentiful in the Sierra 
Foothills, might it not be found north of the 49tli 
parallel? Indeed, there had already been indica- 
tions of the precious metal in this region. Where 
then would be the Hudson's Bay Company, with 
its large and widely extended interests, should the 
Pacific coast be brought into sudden prominence 
before the world, as in truth it was even now being 
brought? 

* All this -was purely for eflect, and was, moreover, so palpably opposed to 
the cliaractcr and policy of the company, that none but the most simple-minded 
were for a moment deceived by it. 
Hist. Brit. Col. 14 



210 GRAXT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 

It was well, as cautious and prudent business men, to 
think of these things and to provide for them. And 
the officers of the company did so think and so pro- 
vide, for they were shrewd, far-seeing men. For their 
subsequent policy as well as for their past deeds, many 
writers attempt to bring odium upon them. I see 
no special cause for praise or blame in the premises. 
They were not professional patriots like our congress- 
men and state politicians; they were a commercial 
corporation seeking to make money by every lawful 
means, and 1 have failed to discover anything more 
dishonorable in their dealings than in those of mer- 
chants and monopolists generally. When a man or an 
association of men raise the signal of money-making, 
the less they talk of piety or patriotism in connection 
with their commercial efforts, the less they will be 
regarded as hypocrites,^ 

^ It is in exceedingly bad taste, to say the least, for Mr Martin, who writes 
as special advocate for the company, to devote one of the five parts of which 
his work is composed to expatiating on the ' Christian conduct and beneficent 
policy of the Hudson's Bay Company,' The fact is, there was not the slight- 
est Christian conduct or beneficent policy about their business. Their occu- 
pation was neither proselytism nor benevolence, but the fur-trade. As a 
matter of course, there were religious and Immane men among them— humane 
I think they almost all were, and remarkably so; Ijut in orthodox Christianity 
they numbered many sceptics. Their lives were such as to engender tliought, 
and thought is unfavorable to faith Away from the influences of form and 
example, spending much of their time alone with nature, constant witnesses 
of the diversity of beliefs in the surrounding nations, the servants of the com- 
pany were apt to fall into an independent train of reasoning wliicli led them 
far away from the teachings of their childhood. So that I say for that time, 
and as a class, the officers and servants of the company were remarkably scep- 
tical. In this part of Mr Martin's work the company itself can scarcely take 
pride. It is made of prolix testimonials from church people who have received 
favors from the corporation, and which a night's lodging would buy. Now, no 
one has ever denied, that I am aware, that the officers of the Hudson's Bay 
Company were composed of high-minded, courteous gentlemen. I should call 
them exceedingly liberal, both in money-matters and in ideas. Their respect 
for the opinion of others, whatever might be their own, and their kindness to 
missionaries of whatever faith or nationality, were proverbial. Therefore 
when Mr Martin cites instances of courtesy extended to bishops and others as 
examples of piety, he renders himself ridiculous. One of his first assertions 
here is that the company 'have well fulfilled the objects for which their 
charter was granted in 1670,' which, if I read the record correctly, is simply 
not true. Exploration was made only as they were driven to it, and then 
more to conceal knowledge than to reveal it; settlement was absurd on the 
face of it; and although profoundly indifferent as to the Ijelief the savages en- 
tertained regarding the future state, and although missionary establishments 
interfered in some degree with their traffic, they were not insane enough, 
while dependent upon public opinion for their very existence, to bring down 



FUR-TRADERS AS COLONIZERS. 211 

A fur company is a bad colonizer. The adventurer 
of England never professed to be a colonizing com- 
pany. Before this they had never specially oi)posed 
colonization, for, except in the affairs at Red Kiver, 
the question had never arisen, and that settlement 
was made, as before remarked, not so much for the 
sake of colonizing as for retaliation. The company 
had never refused an application for land for purposes 
of colonization, because none had ever been made. 

Land held under license to trade, the company did 
not pretend' to have the right to sell ; but Rupert Land, 
held under charter of Charles II., they did claim as 
theirs absolutely, to hold or to sell as they should 
elect. A portion of the territory west of the Rocky 
Mountains might be colonized without interfering 
with the fur-trade; lands suitable for agriculture are 
not fur-bearing. 

In all parts habitable to progressive man, the fur- 
trade, from its very nature, was from the beginning 
destined to diminish. In the United States and in 
the southern parts of British America, it is already 
comparatively extinct. During the present century 
the trade in North America has diminished three 
fourths. The Hudson's Bay Company by restricting 
the slaughter have, for a time, and in certain localities, 
caused the game, instead of diminishing, actually to 
increase, but it is only in latitudes too cold for civilized 
man that w^e may expect the peltry trade to be perma- 
nent. All this tl;e company had long understood, and 
therefore were well aware that Vancouver Island could 
not long remain untenanted. 

Again, though constitutionally opposed to settle- 
ment, it was interference with the fur-trade that the 
company feared more than the mere segregation of 

upon their heads the indignation of the religious world by throwing olistaclea 
in the way of heathen conversion, or of treating with coldness or indiffer- 
ence the messengers of the gospel. They even had their own paid cliaplaina 
at many of their posts, but this was rather for form's sake. Evidently Mr 
Martin in his extraordinary ardor has liere given the corporation credit for a 
virtue which they themselves never chiimed. 



212 GRANT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

any small part of their vast cloinain for pui*poses 
of cultivation. Could colonial operations be strictly 
confined to the Island, the Mainland meanwhile being 
under the absolute dominion of the company, more 
particularly if there was money in it, the adventurers 
of England would scarcely remain long averse to 
doing good in that way. Throughout their long and 
eventful career, never had they for a moment hesi' 
tated to serve their country when the largest profit 
Avas to be realized in so doing. ^ 

In 1847 certain complaints were made at the colo- 
nial office in London against the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany by Mr Isbister, lately returned from a visit to 
the territories of the company. The answers given by 
the company to these complaints not being satisfactory, 
the matter was referred to Lord Elgin, governor-gen- 
eral of Canada, whose opinion as rendered seemed not 
adverse to the government of the fur-traders. 

The Hudson's Bay Company were now emboldened 
to present their request in due form, and the following 
year, the draft of a charter granting them the Island of 
A^ancouver was laid before parliament. Mr Gladstone 
spoke against the measure, believing the corporation 
unqualified for the undertaking. Likew^ise the public 
journals, as a rule, were against investing the company 
with these privileges, and the chamber of commerce 
of Manchester sent up a remonstrance against the 
proposition. 

Two principal objections were urged: first, that the 
colonization of the Island at the present time was an 
unwise movement; and secondly, were it not so, the 
officers of the fur company were not the proper per- 
sons to undertake it. Objections were made to certain 
features of the proposed grant. For example, it was 

* 'I suppose the Hudson's Bay Company discourage having any settlemenb 
as far as they can, within their territory? ' asked the chairman ot the house 
of commons committee of Mr EUice. 'The Hudson's Bay, like all other 
people, would like very much to have any settlement that was profitable, ' was 
the reply. 



COMPLAINTS OF SETTLERS. 213 

the intention to vest in the company the fisheries of 
the Island, and it was said to be the purpose of Earl 
Grey to let the provisions of act 1 and 2, George 
IV., cap 66, regulate the administration of justice. 
By this act, felony and civil cases involving over two 
hundred pounds nuist be tried in the courts of Canada. 
One of the chief arguments of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, in their effort to make it appear to the interest 
of the British Government to continue the license of 
exclusive trade in their hands, was that by so doing 
the country might be kept in peace. It was not alone 
to prevent competition with Canada that an act of 
parliament was about this time proposed, which should 
enable the crown to grant the company a license of 
exclusive trade, while the Mainland should be opened 
to colonization, but also to hold the country from the 
inroads of people from the United States. Unless a 
monopoly Avas given to a particular class of British 
subjects, citizens of the United States might trade 
with the Indians the same as British subjects. Ter- 
minate our monopoly, they said, and 3'ou open the 
country to the world. 

In the house of commons on the I7th of July 1848, 
the earl of Lincoln asked if the government intended 
to make to the Hudson's Bay Company a further 
grant, giving them powers over Vancouver Island 
similar to these enjoyed over their other territories. 
The under-secretary for the colonies replied that such 
a measure had been talked of, but not j'et determined. 
It w^as understood that the inquiry had been insti- 
tuted through the instrumentality of the governor- 
general of Canada, and, Lord Lincoln thought, merited 
due deliberation. Lord John Bussell answered that 
other persons besides the Hudson's Bay Company 
were desirous of colonizing Vancouver Island, and he 
did not deem expedient at that time such investiga- 
tion as would lead to long delay. 

A month later Mr Christy remarked that he be- 
lieved the complaints of those who had hitherto settled 



214 GRANT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

on lands ruled by the fur monopoly at Bed River and 
elsewhere to be well founded. The system of this cor- 
poration w^as utterly opposed to colonization, and he 
hoped this valuable island would not be given them. . 
Mr Hawes replied that none of the many persons 
who had expressed a desire to colonize, had offered any 
security to settlers, as did the Hudson's Bay Company, 
which already had a flourishing post on the Island, 
with the exclusive right of trading with the natives. 
The distance was great, the climate and soil were not 
attractive, and the expense of colonizing was beyond 
the purse of any private individual; the scheme would 
likely prove disastrous to all engaged in it unless 
backed by some strong power. Moreover, the pro- 
posed grant was only a grant of territory, not carry- 
ing with it any right to rule. The government of the 
Island was a matter totally distinct from this grant of 
land; it should be perfectly free, with a governor and 
an assembly making and executing their own laws, and 
collecting and disbursing their revenues, wholly inde- 
pendent of the Hudson's Bay Company. But for all 
this, the proposed grant should not be made until the 
complaints of the Bed Biver settlers had been in- 
quired into. 

The world had already had experience in colonization 
by companies, said Mr Gladstone. The Hudson's Bay 
Company was at once a trading and a land company, 
exclusive and secret in the strictest sense, all their 
affairs being conducted in a spirit of absolutism wholly 
inconsistent with imperial concerns, which throughout 
the vast British empire were everywhere open and 
public. If he read the thoughts of the company 
rightly, they would say, " Colonization is undoubtedly 
a great evil; but if it is to be, it will be better in our 
hands than in the hands of anybody else, for so we 
shall be able to keep it down to the minimum." And to 
this same end they had first asked for all the queen's 
dominions west of the Bocky Mountains. 

Althouofh Mr Howard believed it most unwise to 



FELLY AND EARL GREY. 215 

confer the extensive powers proposed on a fur-trading 
company, yet as California had lately been ceded to 
the United States, it appeared to him a matter of 
the highest importance that a flourishing British 
colony should be established on the western Ameri- 
can coast, in order to balance the increased maritime 
strength of the United States in that quarter. Lord 
John Kussell explained that the company already held 
exclusive privileges which did not expire until 1859, 
that they now held these western lands by a crown 
grant dated the 13th of May 1838, confirming their 
possession for twenty-one years from that date, that 
these privileges could not be taken from them with- 
out breach of principle, and that if colonization were 
delayed until the expiration of this term, American 
squatters might step in and ])ossess themselves of the 
island, but Goldburn did not think the last-mentioned 
event possible. 

Earl Grey saw two reasons for making this arrange- 
ment with the Hudson's Bay Company: no other 
persons were ready with the necessary capital for the 
undertaking, and the fur company already possessed 
the exclusive right of trade for a further period of 
eleven years. The company were willing to vest the 
appointment of governor in the crown.^ 

When Sir John Pelly again brought the subject of 
the grant to the attention of Earl Grey, proceeding 
on the principle that he or his associates Avould not 
derive any pecuniary benefit therefrom, but would 
apply all funds accruing from the sale of lands or min- 
erals toward the colonization and improvement of the 
Island, his astute lordship suggested that it might be 
well to insert those terms in the grant, as they had 
been wholly omitted in the original draft. The earl 
himself, in a letter to Mr Hawes dated the 4th of 
September 1848, would not hesitate to take the com- 

'^The discussion of this subject in parliament was very extendeil, and is 
ably rei)ortud in HansanVs Parliamentary Debates, ser. 3, c. 510-12; ci. 2G3- 
305, 315, and 405-9 



216 GRANT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

pany's word for it, but "in order not to leave any 
grounds for the jealousy of their intentions, which it 
appears from recent parliamentary discussions is en- 
tertained in other quarters, he thought it as well to 
introduce all these now well understood conditions 
formally into the grant. "^ The Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany could do no less than to admit these stipulations 
into the grant, since they had originally proposed them 
in the former petition which the government had 
denied. Hence on the 9th of September Sir John 
Pelly wrote Earl Grey according to his suggestion. 

On the 30th of October 1848, the privy council 
committee for trade and plantations, to whom the mat- 
ter had been referred the 4th of September, reported 
to the court at Windsor on the grant of Vancouver 
Island, that in the opinion of the committee certain 
amendments and further conditions should be inserted 
into the original draft; as, for example, the company 
should not have the fish about the Island, and should 
not retain more than ten per cent, and so on, which 
report was duly approved by her Majesty. Although 
there was nothing^ embodied in the charter to chans^e 
the administration of justice, yet in the proposed 
scheme of government now made public, a guaranty 
was given that application should be made to parlia- 
ment to vest in local tribunals the power of adminis- 
tering English law, thus removing from this colony 
the restrictions of the act named. 

^In regard to the remuneration of the company for their services — for 
although they had expressed the intention of receiving no pay, it was well 
understood that in some shape they would certainly receive pay — Earl Grey 
named ten per cent of the gross receiiats from lands and minerals as a fair 
compensation. The remainder he suggested ' should be expended either in 
sending out emigrants, or in providing for the cost of roads, and buildings 
and other necessary charges for the settlement of the Island. As the whole 
of these charges, and every other expense connected with the occupation of 
the Island is to be provided for by the company, according to the original 
understanding that no pecuniary demand of any kind was to be made upon 
her Majesty's government, it is obvious that the company could not expect 
under any circumstances to realize as profit a larger pi-oportion of the pro- 
ceeds of the land sales than I have mentioned, and that therefore the intro- 
duction of an express stipulation to the above effect into the grant would be 
attended Avith no real sacrifice of their interest.' Letter from B. Heaves to Sir 
John Felly, 4th Sept. 1848, in House Commons Returns to Three Addresses, 17. 



ISLAND AND MAINLAND. 217 

There was no provision in the original draft that 
any portion of the proceeds from the sale of lands, or 
of the royalty received from settlers for working 
mines, should be expended for the benefit of the 
settlers. Hence it threw upon the project quite a dif- 
ferent aspect when in addition to the restriction con- 
cerning fisheries the grantees were required to expend 
nine tenths of all money so received in public im- 
provements, reserving for themselves only one tenth 
for their trouble. 

It was not at this time deemed advisable by the 
government to include the Mainland in this coloniza- 
tion scheme. There was work enough to do for the 
jDresent upon the Island, and until a secure footing 
should be established here, it was folly attempting 
more difficult tasks. Upon the Island the natives 
could be easily controlled; upon the adjacent coasts 
colonists would be at their mercy. When all goes 
well with the savage, he is independent and arrogant. 
With a plentiful supply of fish for food, with fire-arms 
and occasional copious supplies of spirituous liquors, the 
natives of the Mainland would prove very difficult of 
management by colonists. The fur-hunters if left to 
themselves could manage them. They alone under- 
stood them and were accustomed to their ways. It. 
would be time enough to take the country out of their 
hands when it was actually needed for settlement. 

We have already seen how in the forty-third jea.r 
of the reign of George III. parliament passed an act 
extending the jurisdiction of the provincial courts of 
Canada over the British American territory adjoin- 
ing, so that crimes committed in the Indian terri- 
tories should be deemed offences of the same nature, 
to be tried in like manner, and subject to the same 
penalties, as if committed within the provinces of 
Upper or Lower Canada. We have seen how upon 
the amalgamation of the N'orthwest and Hudson's Bay 
companies in 1821, in order to secure to the utmost 



218 GRANT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

sucli favors as tlie united interests of two such power- 
ful associations could command, in order to obtain 
official recognition, a renewal of rights, more clearly 
defined territorial boundaries, and power more abso- 
lute and determined, pretence was made that the 
terms of the former act were ambiguous; in fact, 
that doubts were entertained whether the provisions 
of the act of the forty-third of George III. extended 
over all the territory granted by the charter, and it 
was expedient that such doubts should be removed. 

Where the power was not wanting, it was easy 
enough to make out a plausible case, and to have a 
new act passed. The act of 1821 was entitled "An 

act for reo'ulatina- the fur-trade, and for establishing 
.... ... . 

a criminal and civil jurisdiction within certain parts 

of North America." By this act it was made lawful 
for the crown to make grants or give royal license to 
any person or company for exclusive traffic with the 
natives in any part of North America specified, other 
than in domain before granted, or not a part of Brit- 
ish North American possessions. At the same time, 
the provisions of the act of the forty-third of George 
III. were declared extended over all the territories 
before granted to the governor and company of ad- 
venturers trading into Hudson's Ba,y. 

We have seen how on the loth day of May 1838, 
the time then drawing nigh when the license of 1821 
should terminate, application was made for a reneM\al 
of that license on the ground that large sums of 
money were being expended in the trade which, if it 
was to be abandoned so shortly, the company were not 
justified in continuing; and that the license was re- 
newed, as asked for, another term of twenty-one years, 
making it expire in 1859. We have seen how on 
the loth of June 1846 the 49th parallel was made 
the dividing line between the United States and the 
British American possessions, thus causing the com- 
pany to move their operations back to the north of 
that line. 



TERMS OF GRANT. 219 

Finally, with all this as a preamble, and in view of 
the fact that the letters-patent of Charles II. as ap- 
phed to Rupert Land had been extended over the 
western territories, so far as exclusive trade was con- 
cerned, and the adventurers of England had built 
forts at various points within that territory, and on 
the Pacific slope, and on Vancouver Island; and be- 
cause it would conduce to the maintenance of justice 
and good order, and the encouragement of trade and 
the protection of the natives,^ it was determined to 
vest in the company the property in the land of Van- 
couver Island for purposes of colonization, and on the 
13th of January 1849 the grant was consummated. 

By the terms of this instrument the governor 
and company of adventurers of England trading into 
Hudson's Bay, and their successors, were given the 
Island, with the royalties of its seas, and all mines be- 
longing to it. They were made lords and proprietors 
of the land forever, subject only to the domination 
of the British crown, and to a yearly rent of seven 
shillings, payable on the first day of every year. 
They were to settle upon the Island within five years 
a colony of British subjects, for to this end alone w^as 
the gift made; and to dispose of land for purposes of 
colonization at reasonable prices, retaining of all the 
moneys received from such source as well as fi'om coal 
or other minerals, ten per cent, and applying toward 
public improvement upon the Island the remaining 
nine tenths. Such lands as might be necessary for 
a naval station, and for other government establish- 
ments, were to be reserved; and the company should 
every two years report to the government the number 

^It would liave been better for the majesty of England to have said noth- 
ing about the protection of the natives in this connection. It should have 
been by this time well understood, the significance of the term protection, as 
applied by civilization to savagism. Spain had given full example. The only 
solitary instance in all the two Americas, where the natives had been uni- 
formly and pennanently treated with kindness, was by the Hudson's Bay 
Company themselves, and no further comment on the comparative benefits 
which were to flow in upon them by reason of colonization is nccessaiy than 
to refer the reader to the pages which follow upon the subject. 



220 GRANT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

of colonists settled in the Island, and the lands sold. 
If at the expiration of five years no settlement should 
have been made, the grant should be forfeited; and if 
at the expiration of the company's license of exclusive 
trade with the Indians in 1859 the government 
should so elect, it might recover from the company 
the Island, on payment of such sums of money as 
had been actually expended by them in colonization. 
That is to say, the crown reserved the right to recall 
the grant at the end of five years should the com- 
pany, either from lack of ability or will, fail to colo- 
nize, and to buy it back at the end of ten years by the 
payment of whatever sum the company should have 
in the mean time expended. Except during hostili- 
ties between Great Britain and any foreign power, 
the company should defray all expenses of all civil 
and military establishments for the government and 
protection of the Island.^'' 

No small difference of opinion arose as to the wis- 
dom of the grant, and the act was consummated in the 
face of strong opposition. The friends and the ene- 
mies of the measure arrayed themselves on either side, 
and a war of words followed. As a matter of course, 
there was much exaggeration, and many misstate- 
ments, wilful or otherwise, were made on both sides. 
But out of the debris brought down by the combatants 

^^ Among othei places, a copy of this grant may be i'oxind in House of Com- 
mons lietunis to Three Addresses, 13-16. The original draft is in Martins 
Hudson s Bay, 168. Besides a copy of the royal grant of Vancouver Island, 
the House oj Comtnons Returns to Three Addresses, dated respectively the IGth 
of August 1848 and the 6th of February and the 1st of March 18-49, contains 
copies of admiralty letters and despatches; one from Sir George Seymour; one 
from Captain J. A. Duntze of the ship Fisgard, to Commander Gordon of the 
3loop Cormorant, dated 7th of October 1846; letter from Peter Skeen Ogden 
and James Douglas to Captain Duntzej report of lieutenants Warre and 
Vavasour, March 1846, respecting soil, climate, minerals, and harbors, ad- 
dressed to the secretary of state for the colonies; report by Vavasour, 
March 1846, addressed to Colonel HoUoway, Canada; instructions of the 
admiralty respecting the coal of Vancouver Island; correspondence between 
tlie solonial office and the admiralty; letters from B. Hawes to Sir John 
T'elly; from Sir John Pelly to Earl Grey, the 9th and 13th Sept. 1848; from 
Hawes to Pelly the 27th of Sept. and the 25th of Oct. 1848; and from A. Bar- 
clay to 6 Hawes 3d Nov. 1848. Also report from privy council committee 
for trade and plancations on the grant of Vancouver Island, dated 31st Oct. 



MAKTIN AND FITZGERALD 221 

there is no difficulty in arriving at the truth, which 
was simply that the Hudson's Bay Company desired 
to control colonization on the Pacific coast; to press 
or retard it as they should find it to their interest, 
which persons interested in the settlement of the 
country preferred should be done by those havmg no 
ulterior end to serve. '^ 

In the Times of the 27th of January 1840, a fort- 
night after the grant was made, appeared an adver- 

^^ Among the mass of matter published in books and periodicals, two 
authors stand preeminent as champions, one on eithei side, R. Montgomery 
Martin, T/ic Hud-ions Bay Territories and Vancouver s Idand, for tlie company, 
and James E. Fitzgerald, An Exdrninatlon of the Charter and Procce'linr/s 0/ the 
Ihvl.ion's Bail Coiupanij, with Referenre to the Grant of Vancouver s hlnnd. 
against it. Mr Martin writes avowedly to eidighten the world on Hudson 3 
Bay Company affairs. He gives, first, tlie physical features of the territory; 
second, the constitution and workings of the corporation; tliird, their treat- 
ment of the aborigines; fourth, the conduct and policy of the company; 
fifth, qualifications of the company for colonizing Vancouver Island. The 
first part is made up largely of quotations; in fact, Mr Martin makes the 
aoissors do duty throughout the entire work. In brief, the country is good, 
the system perfect, the natives well treated, the conduct of tlie company 
Ijeneficent and Christian, ten thousand half-breeds testifying to their morality, 
and to prove their qualifications for colonizing Vancouver Island, he quotes 
ten pages from Wilkes, with scarcely a break — this, and to the point nothing 
more. Wilkes' testimony goes to show that the officers of the Hudson's Bay 
Company were intelligent, enterprising, and hospitable gentlemen, which as 1 
liave I)efore remarked no one has ever denied With Martin's book before 
him, which is supposed to be all the infoimation and arguments an able ad- 
vocate enjoying the patronage of the company and having at hand all 
material extant for writing a good book upon the subject could produce, 
Fitzgerald writes Oladstone that there is little in the work to reply to, and 
what tlieie is, is 'neither fair or true.' His reply is arranged in the follow- 
ing order: First, he states some recent occurrences in connection with the 
suljject. Next ne examines the \'alidity of the giants made to the company 
at various times, which he pronounces from the first invalid. Then he speaks 
of the influence of the charter on England and America, and on colonization. 
Both these writers are extremists, Mr Fitzgerald leans as much too far 
tcnvard one side as Mr Martin does toward the other. It is between the two 
that the truth lies. The original grant of Charles II. was undoubtedly in- 
valid; but quiet occupation for one or two centuries was surely sufficient to 
give the possessor title as claimed, which was ownership in the soil, but always 
subject to the crown of England Mr Fitzgerald's work is fat the abler of 
tlie two. With ungloved hands he strips the subject of its falsities: exposing 
the subterfuges of special pleaders with merciless severity; and were he not 
a special pleader himself, his work would carry much weight. The diflference 
between these two writers was this: While Fitzgerald stood up to a square, 
manly fight, Martm played the public foul, not only endeavoring to make one 
thing appear another, but asserting unl)lushingly that one thing was another. 
A just cause needs no such bterary trickery as that employed by Mr Martin. 
I do not say bis cause was not a just one I do not think the Hudson s Bay 
Company wer^ specially to be blamctl tor obtaining the grant or for what 
followed Earl ( Iroy niatle some mistakes as well as the company. I only say 
with respect to Mr :SIartin anl iiis book, that ri^ht or wrong he injured his 
cause by reporting to bold deceit. 



222 GRA^T OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

tisement stating the reason why this act should not 
have been consummated, or at all events, not until 
the charges then standing against the company had 
been thoroughly investigated and the matter decided 
whether additional power would be safe in their 
hands. ^^ 

'2 Mr Finlayson says, V. I. and Nwthicest Coast, ilS. , 26, that it was only after 
British men-of-war had visited Esquimalt harbor during the Oregon disputes of 
1S46, that the government became alive to the importance of the Island, 'and 
in order to enable them to establish courts of justice, offered the Island of Van- 
couver to the Hudson's Bay Company, in fee-simple, on condition of colonizing 
it at first for ten years from 1849, reserving to themselves the right of appoint- 
ing the governor.' See also British North America, 298, where the grant 
is called a lease; Martins Hudson's Bay, passim; Waddin(jtons Fraser Mines, 
30; Grant's Descrip. V. I., in London Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 272-3; House 
Commons Bept. Rae, par. 648-54; Simpson, 1283-4, 1635^4, 1666-74, 1847-8; 
Maynard, 445-6; Blanshard, 5102, 5149-55; ElUce, 5834-67, 5906-33; Olym- 
pia Club Conrs., MS., 1-19; Langevins Bept., 1; Coopers Maiitime Matters. 
MS., 3, 4; Tod's Hist. Neiv Caledonia, MS., 21-2 



CHAPTER XIIT. 

TKE COLOXY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND UNDER HUDSON'S BAY 
COMPANY REGIME. 

1849-1859. 

prospectts and advertisement for colonists — qualifications of the 
Company for Colonizing — Objections Raised — They avere Fur- 
TRADEKS- -And YET They had Ships and Money — The Puget Sound 
Company would have a Share— No Easy Matter to Please All — 
Land, One Pound an Acre — The Scheme a Foreordained Failure 
— Price of Land Too High — The Gold-fields of Californlv One 
Cause OF the Failure— Vancouver Island in Parliament- The Earl 
OF Lincoln, Lord Elgin, and Mr Gladstone on the Situation— New 
Attitude of the Hudson's Bay Company in Relation to the Natives. 

Upon the signing of their grant, the company pub- 
Hshed a prospectus, and advertised for colonists.^ In 
the prospectus the price of land to settlers was fixed 
at one pound an acre, and for every hundred acres 
bought at this rate the purchaser was obliged to con- 
vey at his own expense three families or six single 
meii.^ 

The qualifications for the colonization of Vancouver 
Island possessed by the adventurers of England over all 
other pcn^sons or powers — if indeed they possessed any 
such advantages as before intimated — may be briefly 
summed up as follows : First, capital. Money was re- 
quired from some source to convey colonists thither, 

1 This their enemies said was done more for displaj^ than with honest in- 
tent. In any event, it woidd be a convenient argument to liavo at hand for 
the purpose of proving at any time that the failure of the scheme was through 
no fault of theirs. 

^ ' It is needless to ofifor comment on these impolitic and suicidal regulations, 
when at the same time both in Oregon and California, where gold was abundant, 
land was purchased at six shillings per acre. The fact was, the Hudson's Bay 
Company wanted to keep back emigration for tlie sake of the furs and oth.er 
petty traffic with the natives; and so far as anti-civilizers they succeeded.' 
ComvmtlW jVein El Dorado, 35. See also Finlaysons Hist. V. I., !MS., 26; 
Cooper, JIar. JlaHer.t, MS., 3-4, calls the prospectus a mere sham. 

(223) 



224 UNDER HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S REGIME. 

to protect them from the savages, and to provide 
shelter and the means of subsistence until they should 
be able to provide for themselves. This capital the 
corporation had at its command, and were willing to 
employ it for that purpose. It is true, the crown could 
have su]:)plied the means ; but if with relief from the 
responsibility and care of the settlement, the expendi- 
ture of public money might be avoided while the ob- 
ject was attained, it was surely an argument in favor 
of the persons willing to undertake the scheme on 
these terms. Second, organization. The Hudson's 
Bay Company were there upon the ground with one 
of the most complete commercial systems in the w^orld. 
Third, experience. For more than a century and a 
half they had occupied these northern realms. They 
were familiar with the country adjacent and its 
capabilities; with the natives, and how to control 
them.^ 

On the other hand, it w^as claimed that the company 
had been recreant in former trusts, that they had man- 
aged their affairs so as to return to them the greatest 
profit without regard to their promises, and that the 
additional power now given them was of a nature to 
tempt their cupidity beyond the stretch of average 
commercial integrity. 

Already was their grasping, overreaching disposi- 
tion manifest in putting forward a draft with scarcely 
a bmding provision in it, except that which made the 
land their own. They were fur-traders, and fur-trad- 
ing was directly opposed to colonization. They were 
monopolists, and monopoly is but a species of tyr- 
anny. It is to that very end that monopolies are 

^ Mr Martin's line of argument in attempting to prove the superior fitness 
of the Hudson's Bay Company for this trvist is unique. In the first place, he 
quotes the money they had made, twenty millions sterling, in somewhat less 
than two centuries, which pocket-stuffing he calls enriching England. Then 
he quotes the Red River colony, which was not conducted by the company, 
and which was a failure, and the Puget Sound Company, which was not the 
Hudson's Bay Company, and also a failure. Next he quotes what Wilkes 
says of the forts and fort life, missionaries, McLoughlin and Douglas, the farm 
at'^Fort Vancouver, California horses, the Cowlitz farm, all interesting in their 
way, but having little, so far as I can see. to do with the subject. 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES. 225 

made, that a few may reap advantage to the exclusion 
of the many. 

Further than this, by the terms of the grant as it 
now stood, a premium was oftered to mismanagement 
and rascahty. There was probably never made so 
irrational an agreement by an English minister pro- 
fessing to have his wats about him.* It was well 
understood at that time that the company were op- 
posed on general principles to have their business 
broken in upon by settlers. The grant would enable 
.them to suppress settlement ad libitum. Again, the 
government might buy the Island back in five or ten 
years, by refunding to the company what had been 
expended. 

Now the company had at command ships, forts, 
servants, and all the appliances of colonization. Any 
business man will readily understand that the company 
could make a feint of colonization, or begin settlement 
in apparent good faith, to the best of their ability, and 
in so doing, in transmitting passengers, and in pro- 
viding for the wants of the colony, could easily charge 
to account a hundred thousand pounds for that which 
did not cost them twenty thousand pounds, and 
which, indeed, would have cost the government under 
its own management all that the company might so 
charge. With ships of their own in regular com- 
munication with England, and an abundance of land 
at their control, the additional expenses of coloniza- 
tion would be insignificant, and scarcely felt by them. 
This was the advantage the company had by being 
on the ground with an old established business and 
experienced servants. It is a well-known fact that 
private individuals or corporations will do almost 
anything more economically than public ofiicials. It 
is now a pretty generally settled principle that the 

* Of Earl Grey's mismanagement Mr Fitzgerald and others speak in the 
strongest terms. 'The minister has publicly declared by this conduct tliat 
he is possessed of no distinct guiding principles in respect to colonization. 
Let the public judge whether such a minister is fit to preside over the vast 
colonial interests of this empire.' FitzjeraliVn V. I., 2GC-7 
Hist Brit. Col. 15 



226 UNDER HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S REGIME. 

public is a thing to be fleeced, and that no stain of 
dishonor attaches to a wasteful expenditure of the 
people's money; so that the company had but to 
make a pretence of colonization, write down large 
sums against the colonization account, and impose 
upon the colonists until their situation should be un- 
endurable, and so force the government to take the 
Island off their hands, and pay the money charged in 
the account; most of which would be profit; the re- 
mainder having been faithfully employed to the best 
ability of the monopolists in retarding settlement. 
Here was apparent the far-sighted v/isdom of Earl 
Grey.^ 

There was 3^et another reason why the colonization 
of Vancouver Island might perhaps be better per- 
formed by other hands. The Puget Sound Agricul- 
tural Company, though not identical with the Hudson's 
Bay Company, was closely allied to it. The former 
was simply a distinct association of some of the mem- 
bers of the latter. The ofiicers of the fur company 
were the persons principally interested in the agricul- 
tural company; the Puget Sound Company being 
rather a farm than a colony. There remained only 
the Ped Piver settlement as a sample of fur-company 
colonization, and this was a failure. Serious charges 
were preferred by the settlers at Ped Piver against 
the governor and rule of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
and the imperial government was begged to interfere. 
The Hudson's Bay Company frankly admitted that 
the Ped Piver colony was a failure, but claimed that 
it was none of their doings, but the private scheme of 
Lord Selkirk, and never should have been undertaken. 
The colonists there were surrounded by a wiklerness, 

^ 'There is strong reason to suspect,' says Fitzgerald, 'that the company 
never did intend to colonize any part of their territories. They never pro- 
posed to do so until it was inevitable that it must be done by some one ; and 
their whole conduct suggests the idea of a desire to get possession of the 
country only for the purpose of keeping others out. Driven out of this design 
by public opinion, they have undertaken to colonize or to give back the 
island to the crown, to be disposed of to those who will do so.' This was 
written immediately after the grant was made. 



A TRYIXG POSITION. 227 

with difficult communication with the world without, 
and little market for their produce. The colonization 
of Vancouver Island would be a totally different 
matter. Already there was no inconsiderable trade 
between the Northwest and Russian American coasts 
and the islands of the South Sea and Asia. Moreover, 
the lands of the Puget Sound Company, since the 
treaty of 1846, were within the territory of the United 
States. The affairs of the association were not in a 
very flourishing condition. Now if with one stroke 
the}^ might dispose of their lands and improvements 
at a good price to the United States, and at the same 
time secure a good footing in the most favorable part 
of an island set apart for colonization, thus forcing 
settlers, should any come, to subdue wild lands adja- 
cent and beyond their limits, thus greatly enhancing 
the value of their own, it might surely be a good thing. 

It was a difficult undertaking, this of the fur- traders, 
exceedingly difficult, at once to please England, to 
please the settlers, and to please themselves. England 
would wdsh to see this rock-bound, forested isle 
speedily converted into fertile fields and flourishing 
settlements, where her prolific poor might find happy 
homes and her manufacturers good customers. The 
settlers would like each the best and largest piece of 
land upon the Island. If their farm was not upon the 
main street of the metropolis it should be at least in 
the suburb. They should be furnished for little or 
nothing with everything they required; they should 
not be expected to perform much labor, for they could 
have lived at home if they had labored hard; the 
climate should not be allowed to breed diseases; the 
land with slight tillage should yield abundantly, and 
a ready market should be always at hand. As for the 
company — those who had been lords of the wilderness, 
would now be nothing less than dominators of the new 
subjugation society. Again, while there were many 
implied obligations which the company were expected 



228 UNDER HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S REGIME. 

faithfully to perform, the government did not hesitate 
to impose duties which were not found written in the 
grant. As a matter of course, the crown would ap- 
point the governor. It had been stipulated that the 
land should be sold at a fair price ; but what would 
be a fair price — a shilling an acre, or two guineas an 
acre? The company made known their ideas, and then 
it was that Earl Grey tliought a pound an acre about 
the right figure, though on what ground is not stated. 
That would be assuredly cheap as compared with the 
price of land in England, but it might be called dear 
in a country where five bottles of rum would buy a 
square mile. It might be thought high considering 
its cost, which was simply the taking of it. 

The fur-traders knew well enough that this alone 
was sufficient to kill the scheme. As they were now 
situated, it really made little difference to them 
whether it should prove a success or a failure; but if 
the latter, it would be as well for the fault to lie at his 
lordship's door as at their own. The company claimed 
that the scheme, from the very nature of things, was 
a foreordained failure. It was a fine thing for the 
government to throw the expense of settlement upon 
them, but in due time they began to realize that they 
never should have accepted the charge. There were 
other restrictions imposed by Lord Grey equally 
fatal to success. Not only was a colonist required to 
purchase the land at a high price, but he was obliged 
to create other colonists. To obtain a footing in Van- 
couver Island, the emigrant must be comparatively 
a rich man, and rich men preferred to remain in Eng- 
land. Besides the heavy expense of bringing out him- 
self and his family, if he had one, in order to obtain 
a title to the waste lands of this far-away island, he 
must bring out other men or other families.^ Another 

^ Fitzgerald says ' three families or six single men. ' Grant says five single 
men, 'being at the rate of one man for every tM'enty acres; no single individ- 
ual coming out was allowed to purchase more than twenty acres. ' Descrip- 
tion V. I., in London Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 272. Blanshard, in House Com- 
mons HepL, 287, says that five laborers must be brought out from England 



A POUND PER ^CRE. 229 

serious drawback was the anomalous condition of polit- 
ical aftairs, engendered by impolitic admixtures of in- 
terests, wherein the antagonisms of monopoly and free 
legislation were constantly being brought face to face, 
which will more fully appear as the history pro- 
ceeds. 

The charge of a pound an acre as the price of tlie 
land, not to mention the condition coupled to it of re- 
quiring the buyer of every one hundred acres to place 
upon the Island five men or three families, was ab- 
surd. In the first place, the Island did not ofter the 
finest attractions in the world as a place of settlement. 
It was far removed from the mother country, and the 
time and expense of reaching it were great. Though 
no farther north than England, it was off the main 
lines of circumnavigation. The surface was rocky, 
and in places heavily wooded, there being compara- 
tively little good agricultural land. The market for 
produce was neither present nor secured. The pio- 
neer would have diflficulties enough to contend with, 
w^ere the land given him together with a bonus of a 
pound an acre for preparing it for cultivation. Indeed, 
far better land at that very moment was being given 
away in Oregon, where the climate was warmer, the 
market nearer, and the government as free and as 
favorable. Without impediment and witliout restric- 
tion, upon exactly the same footing as a native of the 
United States, by simply declaring his intentions of 
becoming an American citizen, a subject of Great 
Britain might settle upon any unoccupied lands south 
of the 49th paralleL Instead of five hundred dollars 

for every one hundred acres purchased. ' For every one hundred acres the 
purchaser was bound to import four persons.' Cooper's Mar. Matters, MS., 3. 
A story is told of .J. M. Swan, who, it is said, on consulting with Douglas, 
Cohallc, and Finlayson, in relation to the terms of settlement, was informed 
that for every twenty acres xmrcliaocd one male adult must settle on the 
ground; to secure one hundred acres, a man must have four male scr\%ants, or 
three married couples. 'But 1 have neither servants nor wives,' said Swan. 
' Then get natives, ' was the reply; ' three Siwash men and tliree Siwash wonien. * 
This report, tliougli unrelial)le, was circulated south of the liorder to the no 
s:iiall amusement of those who were securing their land without money and 
almost -H-ithout stipulation. Olymina Club Convs., MS., 1-19. 



220 UXDER KUDSOX'S BAY COZvIPANY'S REGIME. 

ill money, and the trouble of bringing six or more 
persons to the coast for every hundred acres secured, 
three hundred and twenty acres were given him, or 
if he could boast a wife, to the two were donated 
absolutely and for nothing the magnificent area of 
six hundred and forty acres. Strong, indeed, must 
be the patriotism of the pioneer to deny himself these 
advantages in order to maintain allegiance to the 
mother ('ountry/ 

Nine tenths of the pound f)er acre, it is true, went 
to public improvements, and so added to the value of 
the land; but seed, stock, and the implements of and 
aids to husbandry are of far more imj^ortance to the 
struggling frontiersman than government institutions. 
Almost all the pioneering in the United States has 
been done beyond the pale of government. It is true 
that settlers upon the public domain of the United 
States have suffered from outrages and lawlessness far 
more than settlers upon British American soil; but 
unlike the latter, the former while clearing their 
lands and struggling for subsistence have not been 
burdened in building institutions or supporting gov- 
ernment.^ 

Failure to colonize, among other things, was charged 
to the gold-fields of California. Finlayson, Anderson, 
and others complain of the rush from the ranks of 
both agriculturists and traders. Grant says, of four 
hundred men brought out by the company during the 
first five years two fifths deserted, one fifth were sent 

' Says Mr EUice, referring to Lord Grey's restrictions : ' Any person accus- 
tomed to the settlement of laud must know that if you take a pound from a 
man who comes to settle in a wild country, you take from him all the little 
capital which he wants to estaljlish himself on the land. The land is of no 
value to anybody until it is cultivated.' House Commons R'ipt., 334. 

^ ' Of the money arising from the j)roceeds of the sales of that land, ISs. M. 
in every pound stei-ling was to be applied to the benefit of the colony, only 
Is. Qd. in the pound being reserved to the company to remunerate them, as it 
were, for their undertaking the agency of the disposal of the land. Colonists 
were to be allowed to work any coal they might find, on paying to the company 
a duty of 2.s. Qd. per ton, and a duty of 10(7 per load was to be paid on all 
timber exported Grant's Descript V. I., m Lond. Geog. See, Jour., xxvii. 
272-3. ' A settler was restricted in various ways in his operations, which also 
tended to keep back the progress of the settlement.' Finlaysons V. I. and 
Northwest Coast, MS., 26. 



I 



EFFECT OF THE CI OLD MIXES. 231 

to other posts, and the remainder were employed on 
the Island. Admittmg this, which I do not doubt, I 
cannot regard the excuse as a valid one. The omnipo- 
tent magnet of the Sierra Foothills drew settlers from 
Oregon, but in due time they returned, bringing with 
them newly found friends. So would it have been 
with regard to Vancouver Island, had general relations 
there been happy. The love of nationality within the 
breast of an Englishman is strong and enduring, and 
many, willing for a time to endure foreign rule, would 
not for twice what they might make renounce their 
native allegiance, or live long under any government 
but their own. After the first flush of gold-gathering 
had passed it was supposed the mines were exhausted, 
and when the miners were returning to their homes 
then, had the attractions been strong enough, many 
who had learned to love the excitements of pioneering, 
and who still would choose to remain British, would 
have taken passage to Victoria with their little capital, 
and there have made themselves homes; so that in 
the end California would have proved a great gatherer 
of settlers for Vancouver Island, as she did for other 
parts of the north Pacific coast. 

Several did go from California, and returned disap- 
pointed; among others a Mr Chancellor, sent by a com- 
pany of Englishmen whom he left still digging while 
awaiting his return. His report being unfavorable, 
the}^ abandoned the project which they had formed of 
settling in the Island. It was as early as December 
1849, while the mines were flooded and mining was 
regarded as an extremely hazardous business, that 
J. M. Swan visited Victoria and would have secured 
places for himself and others as colonists had the terms 
been regarded as favorable.^ Probably Blanshard 
himself did as much as any other one man in prevent- 
ing emigration from England, for being dissatisfied 

'See Blanshard, in Hoikc Commons liepL, 289; Oli/mpia Club Conr^., MS., 
1-19. • There are thousi-mls of people in the neighborhood of San Francisco 
and in California who woid 1 gladly go to a British colony, provided it was 
under a new administration.' L'ooper, iu JIoii-h' Co,)iiiiOiis lici't., 191. 



282 UNDER HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S REGIME. 

with ]iis reception and treatment there, naturally his 
reports and letters home were colored accordingly. 

To sum up the case, w^e see that colonization under 
the crown grant of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's 
Bay Company was a failure. The causes, we have 
likewise seen, were several. Stripped of the cant and 
cunninp' in which leo^islators, fur-traders, and settlers 
alike inwrapped the subject, the naked truth presents 
itself in the forms following. The primary object of 
the imperial government was to save itself trouble 
and expense; the field was not sufficiently enticing to 
excite either the cupidity or the ambition of politicians. 
There were no spoils. While the settlers had abun- 
dant cause of complaint, and as a class such jDcople 
complain with or without cause, the fur-traders de- 
sired, first of all, to hold the country in their own 
hands as hitherto. They preferred no colonization at 
present. When it must come they preferred to con- 
trol it. Could settlement be confined to the Island, 
and the Mainland still be kept by them intact as a 
game-preserve, it would make but little difference with 
them; but they well knew that for many years the 
Island would not support a large population, and when 
once the limited agricultural fields were filled it would 
speedily overflow on to the Mainland. 

And almost immediately the grant was made the 
crown repented it. Before the end of the year Lord 
Elgin had instituted further investigations into the 
complaints made by the Bed Biver settlers, to the 
disparagement of the officers of the Hudson's Bay 
Company; and on the 6th of February 1849 the 
Earl of Lincoln asked in parliament that the new 
charter or grant of Vancouver Island might be laid 
on the table. The attorney-general and solicitor-gen- 
eral were asked their opinion wdiether the company 
could hold land at all as a crown grant. 

In the house of commons the 22d of February Mr 
Hume remarked, that since the occupation of Call- 



CORPORATION COLONIZATION. 233 

fornia by the United States Vancouver Island had 
become more vahiable than ever, far too vakiable 
to fling away on a fur compan}', which would do 
nothing/' 

In the house of commons, the earl of Lincoln, on 
the 19th of June 1849, made a lengthy speech which 
showed that the hostility manifested from the first 
toward the grant of Vancouver Island had in no wise 
diminished. He believed the measure a national dis- 
aster, and the ])arties to it culpable in a high degree. 
The course pursued by the government was wholly 
informal, and what was done should be revoked. Colo- 
nization by absentee proprietary companies had always 
proved a failure, and were likely always so to prove. 
Witness the colonies of Virginia, Massachusetts, Car- 
olina, South Australia, and others. Penn, as a cor- 
poration sole, managed well enough so long as he 
was on the ground, but disaster followed closely on 
his absence. The superintending power of colonies 
should rest only in the imperial government. These 
fur-traders were not only commercial monopolists, 
but in their transactions were despotic and secret, and 
therefore the very worst persons to whose care to in- 
trust a tender infant colony. 

In short, the legality of the powers of the fur com- 
pany in tlie matter of colonization occupied the atten- 
tion of British statesmen during the greater part of 
the year 1849. The company presented no objections 
to the fullest inquiry, though they took care that the 
decision should be ultimately in their favor. In the 
house of commons, the 5th of July, when the sub- 
ject was again opened for discussion, Mr Gladstone 
remarked that for Sir John Pelly and other officers 
of the company he entertained the highest respect, 
but that he was opposed to the system as applied to 
colonization. Again, on the 1st of August 1850, 
Mr Gladstone demanded an inquiry into the fights of 
the company over its territory in America. And so 

^'^Ilansanrs Pari. Deb., 3d ser. cii. 303, 7G4, 11G9-71. 



234 UNDER HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S REGIME. 

ixiatters went on ; the settlers complained, the states- 
men talked, and the fur company ruled." 

On the whole, affairs in Vancouver Island, under 
fur-trading colonization rule, and up to the time of 
the gold discovery, were managed about as might have 
been expected. There were no flagrant offences, no 
outrageous wrongs, and there was much kindness and 
humanity. 

As a matter of course, the settlers and the fur- 
traders quarrelled. They had not been human, else. 
The idea of vesting in a commercial company supreme 
power, makmg it lord of the soil and of the lives of 
men, and then expecting free and intelligent subjects 
of a liberal and enlightened government to place their 
necks voluntarily under the yoke as colonists, would 
never for a moment have been entertained by a wise 
and thoughtful statesman. ^^ 

The Hudson's Bay Company were sound enough 
and content enough throughout. Fur-trading was 
their chief object. They did not care to colonize, 
unless there was money in it. Whatever the result, 
they knew as business men that they had driven a 
good bargain with the crown, and, notwithstanding the 
assertions of Edward Ellice to the contrary before the 
select committee, whichever turn affairs took, they 
could make it profitable. 

Should colonization succeed, they would find their 
reward, as I have said, in bringing out settlers, in 
furnishing them supplies, in securing the best lands, 
and in developing the coal-mmes. So far as the Island 
alone was concerned, they could undoubtedly make 
more out of it in this way than in holding it as a fur- 
preserve. On the other hand, should colonization fail, 
they would not only have the country all quietly to 
themselves again, but they might collect from the 

^^HnnsanVs Pari. Deh., 3d ser. ciii. 549-94; cvii. 1355-62; cxii. 637-S; 
Niks ncyister, Ixxii. 274, 291; Ixxiv. 157, 2/7; Polynesinn, v. 110; vi. 122. 

i^'Most English peox:»le object to be iiiider any government except the 
real true British government.' Cooper, in House Commons BepL, 200. 



THE USUAL COMMERCIAL POLICY. 235 

crown welliiigli whatever sum their consciences would 
permit tliem to charge as expenses of the failure. 

True to their principles, more Machiavellian than 
imtriotic, the company continued business much after 
the usual way, and much as most other shrewd and 
respectable merchants would have done, careful to 
fulfil tlieir obligations, in the letter at least, to the 
government and to settlers. 

Nor were they specially tyrannical in their treat- 
ment of settlers, or disposed, as a rule, to take undue 
advantage of their necessities. Their own interests 
undoubtedly commanded the company's first attention ; 
there were individuals always to be found in new and 
small societies who rendered themselves particularly 
obnoxious, whose chief delight w^as to breed trouble 
and stir up strife, on whom the corporation, in self- 
defence, was obliged to lay its strong hands; but these 
contingencies satisfied, the fur-traders were disposed 
to treat all men justly and humanely, to walk circum- 
spectly before the world, upholding the dignitj" of 
their government, with all its time-honored institu- 
tions, and commanding the respect and confidence of 
all good men. 

The lot of the settlers, however, was by no means a 
happy one. Obliged to pay a high price for land for 
the most part diflicult of cultivation, and far removed 
from the protection of the fort, they w^ere exposed to 
privations, disease, and dangers. 

As settlers scattered themselves about the Island, 
the Hudson's Bay Company felt obliged to modify 
their treatment of the Indians. Not that they were 
more strict with them, but less so, more conciliatory 
Until the white population became stronger it was 
not considered safe to arrest and punish a native 
offender; else there would surely be retaliation, and a 
bloody and disastrous state of things, akin to that 
then prevailing over the United States border. 

And here again the company displayed their consum- 



236 UNDER HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S REGIME. 

mate knowledge of Indian character, and their cool- 
ness and discretion. The native offender was by no 
means passed unnoticed, but instead of general butch- 
ery the tribe was prevailed upon to send in the crimi- 
nal, who would usually escape with a reprimand or 
even after being won over as the white man's friend, 
would carry home with him a present. This the set- 
tlers called bribery, or premium on crime; yet the re- 
sult shows the wisdom of the policy, for though the 
nations of this region were as fierce as any described 
in all this history, there are no massacres or outrages 
to record. "Many sleepless nights have I spent," 
said Mr Douglas, "in my anxiety for the safety of 
the colony." 

This forbearing policy, which effectually dissipated 
the clouds of contention which now and then menaced 
the Island, was quite marked. For example, when in 
the spring of 1853 a shepherd was killed by a native, 
the captain of the TJietis found the governor in no wise 
disposed to turn the ship's guns on innocent and guilty 
alike.^-^ 

In 1856 an Indian who fired at a white man evi- 
dently with intent to kill, wounding the man, but not 
mortally, was tried by a jury, the governor acting as 
judge, found guilty and hanged. The offender was 
apprehended by the assistance of a force sent from 
tlie Trincomalee. 

Should the question be asked, whether on the 
whole the Hudson's Bay Company had been a bless- 
ing or a curse to the country, the reply would depend 
upon the view taken. Undoubtedly the lives of the 
natives have been prolonged by the guardianship and 
care of the company. The seeds of destruction have 
not been so rajDidly sown by civilization. The country 
has been kept longer a wilderness; development has 
been retarded. 

'^ ' Captain Kuper, who was in command, had to wi-ite several letters be- 
fore he could prevail on Douglas to act.' Cooper, in House Co)nmo,is BepL, 195. 



NOT OVER-ANXIOUS. 237 

If it is better to keep the savages in their original 
state as long as possible, to preserve for them their 
forests and their game, to place in their hands the 
means of obtaining food with greater ease and safety, 
if it is better to keep back settlement, to keep out 
white men, and use the domain only as a preserve 
for far-bearing animals, and as a hunting-ground for 
savages, then the company has been a blessing. If 
it is better to send the natives more swiftly to de- 
struction, to let in upon them the dogs of develop- 
ment, rapine, disease, and speedy extermination, in a 
word, to throw open more rapidly the land to settle- 
ment, then the monopolists have been a drawback. 



I 



CHAPTER XIV. 

TWO ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. 

The Doctor and the Divine — Robert J. Staines— A Man of Frills — 
His Interview with the King of the Hawaiian Islands — The Man 
Mistaken for the Master — His Arrival at Victoria — Mud — Parson 
AND School-teacher — Mrs Staines a Most Estimable Lady — Quarrel 
WITH the Company — Joins the Settlers' Faction — He Cultivates 
Swine— The Settlers Steal his Pigs— Hot Litigations— His Sad 
End — The Doctor Colonist — John Sebastian Helmcken — His Phy- 
sique and Character— Enters Politics— Accepts Office under the 
Governor — Discovers his Mistake — And Becomes a Supporter of 
the Monopolists. 

While yet the colony was young, there appeared 
upon the scene two men of marked individuality, a 
doctor and a divine. One undertook to cure men's 
bodies, and the other their souls; both dealt in the 
unseen and unknowable; hence, the ideas and ethics 
of neither could be disputed. And each carried to 
consistent conclusions, more nearly than is generally 
the case, the tenor of his own teachings; for the di- 
vine died, and so perhaps might see how much of all 
he had been saying was true, while the doctor lived. 

The name of the clergyman was Robert J. Staines; 
he signed himself of Trinity Hall, Cambridge; and he 
came to the country in 1849, in the bark Colinnhia, 
as chaplain for the company at Fort Victoria. 

"He was a man full of frills," says Finlayson, who 
endeavored to receive him politely and treat him 
kindly, but whose patience was sorely tried by him. 
He was insufferably conceited, without being at all 
shallow-pated. He well knew the difference between 
himself and the common human herd, and he was 

(238) 



THE REVEREND STAIXES. 239 

clcterininccl that others should know it. He was not, 
indeed, the first clergyman to make the mistake of 
attempting to browbeat the company's officers in the 
name of his master, and to his own discomfiture. 

Barbarians, he thought, should know him at a 
glance, even barbarian kings should delight to do him 
homage. On the way out from London the ship 
touched at the Hawaiian Islands, and Staines wrote 
the king, intimating that he should be pleased to do 
his turgid-blooded majesty the honor to call on him. 
The king replied that he should be glad to see him. 
Staines delighted in display, and here was a rare op- 
portunity. Unfortunately that glitter which capti- 
vates the barbaric mind, his profession would not 
permit him to sport upon his own person. But there 
was a poor fellow whom he called his servant, and 
he might be made to bear the master's burden of 
pride. Hence, arraying himself in the sombre robes 
of religion, he illuminated his man in gorgeous livery, 
and so presented himself in the royal apartments of 
his Hawaiian majesty. On entering the room where 
v.'aited his visitor, the king's eye caught the dazzling 
vesture of the attendant, and rushing past the master, 
he seized the hand of the servant, and shook it with 
warm, pathetic respect. 

Mr Staines was a married man, and his wife was 
with him ; and however he may have felt called upon 
to fight evil as found in fur-traders, he was a good 
husband, and Mrs Staines stood true to him. To- 
gether they labored, for they were both hard- workers, 
teaching, preaching, and finishing generally what their 
creator had left undone in their little world. Together 
at Victoria they taught the first school in the colony, 
for the Hudson's Bay servants were seldom without 
children. 

"At this time there were no streets," continues ^Ir 
Finlayson; "the traffic cut up the thoroughfares so 
that every one had to wear sea-boots to wade through 
the mud and mire. It v-as my duty to receive tlie 



240 TWO ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. 

clerg3Tiian, which I did, but felt ashamed to see the 
lady come ashore. We had to lay planks through the 
mud in order to get them safely to the fort. They 
looked around wonderingly at the bare walls of the 
building, and expressed deep surprise,^ stating that the 
company in England had told them this and that, and 
had promised them such and such. At all events the 
rooms were fitted up as best could be done. Mr Staines 
had been guaranteed £340 a year for keeping a board- 
ing-school, and £200 as chaplain. The services were 
carried on in the mess-room of the fort, which was 
made to serve for almost every purpose. Here also 
was erected a temporary pulpit, and prayers were held 
every Sunday. At this time Staines purchased some 
land on the same conditions as others. But he too 
became much dissatisfied with things, with Douglas 
and his administration as governor of the colony."- 

Like many others with whom the company had 
to deal in those days, and by whom they were often 
severely and unjustly censured, Mr Staines was 
possessed of qualities more angular than amiable. 
Undoubtedly, he in his turn had much to try his 
patience; all pioneers have. He would not wholly 
ignore the powers of darkness, nor even attempt to 
overcome them, but rather on occasion allied himself 
with them, glad of assistance from any quarter. 

He early quarrelled with the company, accusing 
them of failure to keep their promises with him, more 
particularly in the matter of prices of goods, which, 
he had been assured before -leaving London, should be 
furnished him at servants' rates, that is, at fifty per 
cent on cost, instead of which, he was in reality charged 
in some instances two thousand per cent profit.^ Hence 
Mr Staines found it hard to ask a blessing on their 

^Piously swearing at Finlaj'son in their hearts, as travellers sometimea 
swear at a way-side innkeeper. 

'Finlayson's Hist. V. I., MS., 52-3; Anderson's Hist. XnrtJiivesf Coast, MS., 
102; Cooper's Mar. Matter.'^, MS., 8. 

^For example, fifty cents for a salmon which the company would obtain 
from the Indians for a pennyworth of trinkets out of their shop. Cooper's 
Mar. Matters, MS., 8. 



THE CLERGYMAN'S PIGS. 241 

mercenary souls; and although obliged to do so twice 
or thrice every week, or forfeit his pay, inwardty he 
cursed them. But to the company his blessing and 
his curse were one. It was out of regard for public 
sentiment, to which even the most powerful monopoly 
cannot afford to be wholly indifferent, that the fur- 
traders tolerated gospel ministers, rather than in the 
expectation that the arm of omnipotence would be 
through such means swayed more especially in their 
interests. 

At an early day Mr Staines joined the settlers' 
faction, and waged open war upon the company, still 
continuing, however, his heavenly ministrations. But 
with his own people he was not always at perfect 
peace. 

Though brought hither as a bird of paradise, his 
plumage was never wholly unruffled. His learning, 
acquired at Cambridge at no small cost of time and 
money, was given him in order that he might do 
good. Now to the fur-traders he had no disposition 
to do good, but rather evil; the settlers were not 
much better, but he must begin his work somewhere. 
The savages needed cleansing within and without as 
nmch as an}^ but that was not exactly in his line; 
besides they were so like swine. 

Ah ! swine — pigs — pork. Here was an idea. There 
was already a sutficient number at work improving 
the savaGfes, and his own race was cultivated too 
nmch already; every white man he met there carried 
too keen an edge, so sharp, indeed, as to be dangerous. 
Improved hogs might tend to nulhfy the effect of 
human greed. 

So the Reverend Staines affected swine. Throw- 
ing to the winds all scruple, all the refined sensibility 
of which he so lately made parade, he gathered from 
every quarter the finest breed, and prided himself on 
his piggery. He strove to interest ship-masters in 
pork, and brought the subject to the attention of his 
parishioners. Success crowned his efforts. In less 

Hist. Erit. Col. 1G 



242 TWO ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. 

than two years tlie Island was well stocked with a fine 
breed of pigs. 

But as riches increased so also did the good man's 
troubles. His swine would stray into by-ways and for- 
bidden paths, and the settlers regarded their visits 
with no inward displeasure. They rather liked the 
parson's pork. As now and again a fat favorite dis- 
appeared, the anger of the chaplain rose within him, 
for he knew his pigs were sure to come home unless 
they were roasted. 

Procuring from a neighboring justice a lettre de 
cachet, he saddled his Rosinante, the beast on which 
it was his custom to make his round of visits, and 
sallied forth armed for the right. Not only would he 
gather into the fold his stray pigs, but he would pun- 
ish severely those whom he suspected of enticing them 
from paths of rectitude. Endless litigation followed. 
On one occasion the parson himself narrowly escaped 
prosecution and imprisonment by an enraged parish- 
ioner, whom he had accused of stealing his pigs.^ 

Finally matters with the settlers grew daily worse, 
and it was resolved to send Mr Staines to England, 
to remonstrate with imperial powers upon the injus- 
tice of so tyrannical a rule. It was easier to obtain a 
promise from the reverend gentleman to go than to 
get him started. His habit of procrastination in this 
instance cost him dear, not to mention the loss to the 
colonists thereby. 

The vessel which he was to have taken, and which 
would have carried him safely to San Francisco, sailed 
from Soke without him, as his pigs were not yet all 
provided for. A lumber-laden craft, however, left the 
same port shortly afterward, and on this Mr Staines 
embarked. But scarcely had the ship left the strait, 
when off Cape Flattery a storm struck her, throwing 

* This cliaracter is not in the least overdrawn. These facts and others 
for which I have not space were given me by Finlayson and Anderson, and par- 
ticularly by Captain Cooper, who knew the eccentinc parson well, having com- 
mand of tlie ship which brouglit him to this country, and who lived near hini 
on terms of intimacy during his stay in +he island. 



DEATH OF STAINES. 243 

her on her beam ends. Instantly she was water- 
logged and at the mercy of the waves. Most of the 
crew were at once swept overboard. Mr Staines, who 
was below, cut his way through the side of the ship. 
His cabin was flooded, and without was the wild waste 
of tumultuous waters. And there the poor man re- 
mained, between the lowering sky and the lowering 
sea; there he remained till he died. So the only sur- 
vivor of the wreck reported when rescued by a passing 
ship, and then himself expired. 

Thus much for the unfortunate divine ; the doctor 
is of quite another species. His name is John Sebas- 
tian Helmcken, and he turns up first among the coal- 
miners at Fort Rupert in 1849. He differs from his 
friend the Reverend Staines in many respects; and 
first of all he can in no sense be called divine, even by 
the widest stretch of irony. He had not been long 
upon the Island before he found his bread buttered 
on the Hudson's Bay Company's side of the disputes 
then raging, while Staines was the champion of the 
independent settlers. 

In body no less than in mind the doctor was one to 
command attention. Short and slightly built, with a 
huge head, always having on it a huge hat, balancing 
itself upon his shoulders; with deep, clear, intelligent 
eyes, in which there was self-confidence and critical 
discrimination, but no malice ; with a wide-spreading 
and well-projecting mouth, holding in it the ever- 
present cigar, and given to much laughter; with a 
kind heart that gave the lie to many of his words and 
actions — there has never been a man in British Co- 
lumbia who, with an exterior so impenetrable by a 
stranger, has for so many years maintained the respect 
and confidence of the community, who has made more 
friends, or performed more acts of unparaded charity, 
than John Sebastian Helmcken. In more paths than 
one — in the pursuit of politics and medicine, in the 
pursuit of wealth, honor, and distinction — he won the 
success he so richly deserved. 



244 TWO ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. 

At a very tender age Helmcken had harbored in 
his breast poHtical aspirations. In boyhood he had 
thought of himself as born to something, and he had 
not loner been amono^ the savas^es and miners of Fort 
Rupert before he arrived at the conclusion that he 
was born to rule. He was sure he could rule, for if 
his subjects would not obey him he would punish 
them with physic. In such society he surely might 
aspire to shine as a great medicine; in a government 
so Utopian as to have an office for every citizen, surely 
he might obtain one. Time with him was no object; 
he had little to do; eight coal-miners thus far were all 
who could be legally compelled to take his drugs, and 
the natives had no confidence in him, preferring their 
own physicians, whom they might righteously kill 
wdien they failed to cure. He had time enough; he 
could attend to the affairs of her Majesty's govern- 
ment in those parts as well as not, and he thought he 
should like to do it. 

As Helmcken, unlike Staines, declined to leave the 
Island under any consideration, as he declined to die 
in the service of his country or in any other service, 
and as we shall meet him occasionally in the course 
of this narrative, it is not necessary for me to dispose 
of him finally in this place. We shall see how he be- 
haves in office, for office he obtained — office, the delight 
of his heart. The tidings of his first appointment 
pleased him hugely. His commission came to him in 
the form of a letter from the colonial governor, of 
w^hich he immediately broke the seal and read. It 
was enough to win him to the cause of the corporation 
for life. Here, indeed, was a new future opening up 
to him, with endless and brilliant possibilities, the 
thoughts of which engendered high aspirations, and 
were attended with such thrilling satisfaction as those 
only can appreciate who have themselves been thrown 
upon the border-land of civilization, and have seen the 
light of liberation thus breaking in upon them through 
the wilderness. To one who has buried himself in a 
new country, resolved there to remain, the develop- 



JOHN SEBASTIAN. 245 

mcnt of himself and his resources depending upon the 
development of the country, it is a great satisfaction 
to him when he is first made aware that he is not 
always to remain buried. Thousands and hundreds 
of thousands, during the pioneer periods of American 
settlement, have thus gone down into their graves, 
lost to themselves and to their friends, lost to time 
and to eternity. 

Now, in the incipiency of colonial government on 
Vancouver Island, Helmcken was the devoted parti- 
san of the Hudson's Bay Company. And though he 
was not exactly the kind of a man that they had im- 
agined him to be, in reality he was of much higher 
and more lasting benefit to them than if he had been. 
What they thought they wanted, and did not w^ant, 
was a gnarled knot of human nature of so coarse and 
unpleasing a texture as to be oppugnant to every feel- 
ing of refinement, egotistical, boorish, never suspect- 
ing the low order of his cunning, affecting irony, but 
achieving only buffoonery, fit to wait on Aristophanes 
or Kabclais though Juvenal or Lucian would none of 
him, making up at table in wine and loud laughter 
what he lacked in wit — such was the kind of instru- 
ment on which the fur-tradtrs would like to play their 
new tune of colonization. 

All the better was it for their purpose that he 
should practice a profession, a business that was 
neither law, divinity, nor commerce, but one which 
would bring him in contact with people everywhere, 
with those of both factions, when factions should 
come. Luckily for them, he had been taught to mix 
and administer physic, in which he now succeeded well 
enough; for, having no competitor, whether he killed 
or cured his proceedings were deemed regular, and his 
patients lived or died by the book. 

A short time sufhced to show him that office under 
the colonial governor was not his element. Though 
openly friendly, the representatives of Fenchurch 
street and of Downing street were secretly opposed. 
And volatile as might be John Sebastian by nature, 



246 TWO ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. 

he could not serve and satisfy these two masters. 
Love, avarice, and ambition all beckoned him away 
from imperial affairs, fleeting and fading as they were. 
Therefore, as her majesty's presence on Vancouver 
Island was at this appearing a somewhat shabby affair, 
the little doctor returned to his original allegiance, 
and soon turned himself out of office. 

It so happened, as we have seen, that both of these 
men, the doctor and the divine, were brought hither 
by the monopoly, whose servants they were ; only the 
clergyman would not wdiolly renounce his master in 
heaven, would not at all renounce himself for them, he 
who was inferior to no being of whatsoever caste or 
calibre on this or any other planet. And so he went 
his way, and was swallowed by great waves of ad- 
versity. The doctor, on the other hand, after a brief 
departure from the traditional j^aths of fur-trading 
rectitude, returned to the easier pursuit, and to his 
pursuit proved faithful to the end, receiving to wife 
a governor's daughter, with all attendant honors and 
emoluments. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SETTLEMENT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

1849-1857. 

What aee Settlers ? — Not Fttr-tradees — Nor Coal-miners — Nor yet 
THE NooTiwV Diplomatists— The Mainland not Included in the Col- 
onization Scheme— The Mormons Cast an Eye upon the Island — 
Woman, Red and White— The Monopolists Seize McKenzie, Skin- 
ner, McAuley, and Parsons — Bona Fide Settlers Obliged to Take 
What They can Get — W. Colquhoun Grant — His Settlement at 
Soke Harbor — Lease to Thomas Monroe — Grant Sells Soke to 
the Muirs — James Cooper, Sailor, Trader, and Agriculturist — 
Builds One of the Many First Vessels — He Takes up Land at Met- 
CHOsiN — ThojiasBlenkhorn — The ' Harpoonek,' 'NoRiLiN Morrison,' 
AND the 'Tory ' Bring Settlers — The Town oe Victoria Laid out — 
Wails from Fort Victoria — James Deans Arrives — Baillie and 
Langford — Progress of Settlement. 

The first white men in British Columbia were net 
settlers. To win the favor of the savages, and not to 
exterminate them, was their object. In obtaining 
the skins of fur-bearing beasts their profit lay; and 
that this source of profit might continue, it was to 
their interest, while drawing as largely from the for- 
ests as possible, to preserve the country in a state of 
nature, and nurse the game when it began to fail. 
Thus the fur-traders were diametrically opposed to 
settlement, as I have said before. 

Nor could the coal-miners properly be called set- 
tlers. Their purpose was solely to disembowel the 
earth of its wealth, not to colonize the country. It 
is only when men appropriate to themselves a portion 
of the soil with the view of subduing, improving, and 
permanently cultivating it for the benefit of themselves 

(247) 



248 SETTLEMENT OF VAI^COUVER ISLAND. 

and their successors, that settlement in the true s:g 
nification of the term begins. 

There was thought of colonization at Nootka, hut 
it was transient. Astor entertained visions of settle- 
ment at the mouth of the Columbia, keeping the sur- 
rounding country meanwhile as a hunting-ground. 
Wyetli thought to settle, trade, and build a city, 
beginning operations by establishing Fort William on 
Sauve Island. The originators of these and other 
like schemes were doomed to disappointment. The 
hour of permanent occupation had not yet come. 
The opposers of settlement were too strong for such 
efforts. It was only when the stomach of the great 
monopoly began to feel cravings for something else 
than purely animal food, began to see jDrofit in feed- 
ing their fur-hunting brethren of Russian America, 
that they allowed their hunting-fields to be in any 
degree marred, and their servants to reclaim a few 
fertile patches of ground for their own more j^roper 
feeding. Thus settlement was permitted to begin in 
a small and primitive way in the vicinity of the sev- 
eral forts, and by the French Canadian servants of 
the company in the Willamette, Columbia, and Cow- 
litz valleys. 

Nor, from their own, and from a commercial stand- 
point, were the fur-traders wrong in opposing to the 
latest possible moment the inroads of agriculture upon 
their fur-bearing domain. Their protestations of in- 
difference, in political circles, as to the progress of 
settlement, their denials of harboring any desire to 
retard the permanent occupation of the country^ might 
be taken at their worth. Years before the consumma- 
tion of their fears they saw that their traffic on the 
lower Columbia, and south of it, was doomed. And 
when finally by the influx into Oregon of emigrants 
from the United States they were driven back beyond 
the 49th parallel, only what they had long known to 
be the inevitable was upon them. 

It will be remembered that with the removal of 



EUROPEAN MARITAL FASHIOXS. 249 

head -quarters to Fort Victoria the transport for the 
Mainland interior was estabhshed by way of Fraser 
River, furs being brought on horses down to Hope, 
and thence by boat to Fort Victoria. Outfits for New 
Caledonia and the other interior districts went out by 
the same route. Yet in 1847 there was not a single 
white man on the Fraser between Langley and Alex- 
andria, save at the salmon fishery below Hope. For 
some time yet the Mainland was destined to be kept 
solemnl}' aboriginal. 

As early as 1845 the Mormons had their eyes on 
Vancouver Island as a haven of rest, Nootka being 
their objective point. Even before the homely hard- 
ships of agricultural ventures, the Island began to look 
upward, began to put off that conventional prostitu- 
tion which had so long been pronounced respectable 
by commercial considerations, and to array marital 
matters in the white robes of Christian purity. Mc- 
Loughlin had been reviled by Beaver for living in 
open adultery. Mrs Beaver would not permit her 
petticoats to come in contact with those of Mrs Mc- 
Loughlin for fear of defilement; so after soundly cud- 
gelling the clergyman for his impudence, to make up 
for past defects the chief factor had himself married 
to his wife; was, in fact, married to her two or three 
times over. 

And as the Yifxht of parliament now dawned upon 
this dark western wilderness with ever increasing 
lustre, at the heels of many another oflScer of the fur 
monopoly dangled the tawdry vestments of aboriginal 
love unsanctified by any European formula. All this 
must now be changed, and the Island must put on con- 
nubial purity. Those who had incased the polluted 
blood of their offspring in dusky coverings must re- 
pent and be baptized, then sit in social sackcloth all 
their days. But for those who had overcome, white 
wives should be the reward. 

From the Hawaiian Islands in 1848 came Mrs Cov- 



250 SETTLEMENT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

ington, of blood pure and etiolated skin, the aurora 
borealis of feminity, who reigned resplendent for forty 
years and more. Others from England followed; there 
were the Langfords, the Skinners, Mrs Staines, and 
Mrs McKenzie; and so aboriginal wife-taking went 
out of fashion forever. Miss Burnie, Anderson's 
wife's aunt, arrived from Scotland in 1851.^ 

Among the first acts of the company was to work 
out for themselves a tract of land comprising ten 
square miles^ round Fort Victoria, and to have it sur- 
veyed. The whole Island had been granted them, but 
for purposes of sale and colonization. This ten-mile 
tract they desired to reserve; this they would hold 
and not sell. 

Not that the company entertained the purpose of 
paying at once into the colonial exchequer the pound 
j)er acre to make good their title, unless it should be- 
come necessary for them to do so, and unless they 
should clearly see profit in it at that price. However 
it should turn out in the end, they had the power at 
this time to hold it, and to refuse to sell it at any 
price. And this they did. When Mr Blanshard 
returned to England in 1851 there were two or three 
of the company's former servants located wdthin the 
tract; not more. 

Great indeed were the monopolists in whatsoever 
direction greatness was the fashion; if in fur-trading, 
half the world was too small for them; if in farming, 
they would be the largest farmers in British Colum- 
bia. All the Island and Mainland were theirs, and 

^ 'Rev jSIr Staines, who was also school-master as well as chaplain to the 
company, arrived at Fort Victoria from England about 1849, and remained 
until about 1853. Mrs Staines, his wife, was probably the first English lady 
who landed on Vancouver Island.' Anderson'' s JUd. Nortlacest C'ore.si, MS., 
102. 'Mrs Covington, now in \'ictoria, was the first white lady here.' Fin- 
layson's Ilisi., V. I., MS., 96. Grant, Lond. Geof/. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 281, 
says that Mr and Mrs Staines were there in 1854. 'Mrs Annie Muir, wife 
of John Muir of Soke, died Feb. 18, 1875, aged 73 years. She came to this 
country in 1848, being the second white woman who landed in the province 
of British Columbia.' Olympia Transcript, March 6, 1875. 

■■'This according to Blanshard, House Commons Rcpt., stl. com., 1857, 207. 
Grant including the Puget Sound Company makes the quantity niuch larger. 



THE PUGET SOUND COMPANY'S TRACTS 251 

all the power; were they idiots that they should not 
have a door-3-ard to Victoria Harbor and fort? By 
no uieans.^ On the most fertile spots the two great 
companies planted farms, one at Craigflower, one at 
Lake Hill, and so on, and brought out men from 
England to work them. In 1853 the Puget Sound 
Company had under cultivation and in charge of three 
bailiffs, twenty-five acres of their open patch of two 
hundred acres lying between Victoria and Esquimalt. 

Skhiner's farm, McKenzie's farm at Craigflower, 
McAuley's farm, and Langford's, were settlements 
made under the auspices of the Puget Sound Com- 
pany. Parsons' bridge was built, and there a saw 
and grist mill was erected for the company. Parsons 
superintending the saw-mill part of the structure, and 
George McKenzie the grist-mill part/ The remains 
of the mill were visible in 1878; by the freshet of 
1854-5 the wheel was washed out, and the property 
was otherwise badly damaged. Two or three families 
besides several single men lived at Parsons' Bridge. 

And because the company was great, if for no other 
reason, the settlers early threw themselves into an 
attitude of antagonism. They seemed to understand 
from the first that they had the monopoly to fight, 
and if no wrongs had already been committed, they 
would do battle for those which were sure sooner or 
later to be perpetrated. 

Their standard complaints were the original terms 

^ • On my arrival in the Island all the land in the neighborhood of Victoria 
and Esquimalt, which comprised some 40 square miles, and contained nearly 
all tlie available land then known, was reserved by the Kutlson's Bay and 
Puget Sound companies.' Grant, in Loud, Oeo'j. hoc, Jour., xxvii. 273. 
Writing to Lord (ircy, the 15th of June 1850, Governor Blaushard says: 'The 
Hudson's Bay Company have commenced a survey of tiie land reserved to 
themselves, which is bounded by a line drawn nearly due north from the head 
of Victoria Harbour to a hill marked on the chart as Cedar Hill or Mount 
Douglas, and thence running due east to the Canal de Arro. The extent is 
estimated at about ten miles square. A tract adjoining of similar extent is 
reserved for the Puget Sound Agricultural Association . . . This last contains 
the harbour of Esquimalt. . .There is no water near; tlie water requireil for 
the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company is brought from a distance of two 
miles, and during summer and autumn they are kept ou allowance as at sea.' 
BlriDshnrd's Dexpafc/u's, 2. 

* Deans' Hcttlemmt V. I., :SIS., 19; Brit. Col. Sketches, MS., 25. 



252 SETTLEMENT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

of colonization, the grasping disposition of the Hud- 
son's Bay and Puget Sound companies in appropriat- 
ing all the best lands, the fear of the Indians, the 
absence of properly constituted courts, the withering 
influence of monopoly on colonization, and the failure 
to have been admitted into the Canadian reciprocity 
treaty. These were the permanent troubles, besides 
which was a multitude of near and transient woes 
which well nigh overshadowed all the rest. They ob- 
jected to the ''truck system" as they stigmatized the 
company's time-honored mode of barter; laborers or 
any who had dealings with the monopolists being 
obliged to receive pay in goods in lieu of money, 
and at whatever prices the company should choose 
to fix.^ 

There was one vessel belonging to the company 
which made voyages between Victoria and the Ha- 
waiian Islands several times a year. This ship would 
take freight from Victoria hence, but would not as 
a rule bring goods for settlers from abroad to Vic- 
toria. The open land was first appropriated, where 
neither milling nor shipping facilities were required, 
this being less expensive to prepare for cultivation 
than timber land. The open land was usually fertile, 
and capable of producing from twenty-five to forty 
bushels of wheat to the acre. Wheat was sown in 
October, and among the best fields in 1856 were Old 
Bay Farm and the farm of Mr Ross. The price of 
wheat depended on the will of the Hudson's Bay 
Company. They might give for it a shilling a bushel, 
or ten shillings if they pleased, or they might not take 
it at all.^ 

The first and only honajide settlement for several 
years under the crown grant, and independent of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, or not an offshoot from it, 

^Deans' Settlemevt, V. I., MS., 3. 

* Mr Grogan asked what was done with the wheat in case the company re- 
fused to buy it. 'A great deal of it is in stacks to this day,' Mr Cooper replied, 
'there being no market for it.' House Commons Rept,, 203. 



GRANT AT SOKE HARBOR. 253 

was made in 1849 by W. C. Grant.'' Hearing of the 
new colonization project, he sold his commission as 
captain in an English cavalry regiment, and fitting 
out a small colony consisting of eight persons, he 
placed them with all his effects on board the ship 
Ilarpooner for Vancouver Island, by way of Cape 
Horn, coming out himself by way of Panamd. The 
Ilarpooner arrived in June 1849,*^ and the eight agri- 
culturists and colonists with all their belongings were 
brought wholly at Grant's expense. After a careful 
examination of the country in the vicinit}', he chose 
what he regarded as the most favorable spot avail- 
able, which was at Soke Harbor, at the head of Soke 
Inlet, distant from Fort Victoria, south-westerly, some 
twenty miles.^ 

Grant would have preferred settling nearer the fort, 
where his little colony would have been less isolated, 
less open to attack from the savages, and nearer the 
source of supplies; but by the outspreading of the 

'W. Colqiihoun Grant was a captain of the Scots Greys, 2d Dragoon 
Guards, and lieutenant-colonel of Turkish cavalrj'^ contingent. He was a 
man of no ordinary natural ability, to which were added high intellectual at- 
tainments, as is clearly showni by a Description of Vancouver Island, written 
in 1834, read before tiie London Geographical Society the 22d of June 1857, 
and printed in vol. xxvii. of the society's Journal, 2GS-320. This article, which 
is accompanied by an excellent map, I have often had occasion to quote iu 
this history. As I have before remarked, it covers the whole Held of geogra- 
phy, geology, ethnology, and natural history, with a masterly applicati( n of 
science to an entirely new domain. In describing a trip around ihe Island, 
he gives particulars of the prominent features coming under his observation, 
describing the harbors, their natural advantages, the amount of available 
land, with statistics touching climate, resources, and coal and trade prospects, 
and an account of the natives. This statement of Grant, printed by so re- 
spectable a body as the Geographical Society, earned great weight in England, 
and influenced in no small degree the subsequent investigations of parliament. 

^Fiulayson, Hist., V. I., MS., 48, says that the first colonists arrived in 
1851, but he makes the statement en-oneously from memory. Grant makes it 
indispii table when he states, Loud. Geo'j. Soc, Jour., xx\ii. 273: 'in June 
1849, the first batch of colonists under this system arrived, and they consisted 
of eight men brought out by myself; and from that day to tiiis' — he was 
writing in 1854 — 'not a single other independent colonist has come out from 
the old country to settle in the Island ; all the other uulividuals wiio have 
taken up land having been in the employ of the company, and brought out 
to th& country at its expense. ' 

"Grant's distances were greater than those of later measurers. He says, 
London Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 273, that '^Matchousin, distant eleven miles 
from Victoria, was pointed out to me as the nearest unclaimed spot on which 
I could settle; not approving of which, as there was neither a harbour nor 
mill-power there, I was recommended to proceed to Soke, distant 2G miles.' 



254 SETTLEMENT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

skirts of the fur monopoly, and of those of its sister 
association whilom of Puget Somicl, he was obliged 
to betake himself to the wilderness beyond their 
sacred precincts. 

Soke Harbor was large, larger than either Victoria 
or Esquimalt harbor. It was well sheltered; and 
though the entrance was intricate, vessels could warp 
in and out, or having a south-west wind they could 
enter without difficulty.^" The soil was good, capable 
of producing anything grown in England or Scotland, 
and the aboriginal occupants, sixty male adults in 
number, were peaceful. On the whole it was the best 
he could do. Accordingly he selected there a tract of 
land, built farm-houses and barn, and erected a saw- 
mill at the mouth of a small stream flowing into the 
harbor from the north-east. Thirty-five acres w^ere 
soon under cultivation, and a small stock of cattle, 
horses, pigs, and poultry rejoiced over that act of the 
British parliament which resulted in giving them so 
much to eat with so little effort in obtaming it. 

There for two years resided the retired captain, a 
solitary colonist; he who lately figured so conspicuously 
in the drawing-room and on psnude, now reduced to 
the abject rulership in a solitary wilderness of eight 
farm-hands with their attendant pigs and poultry. 
"Being a patriotic Highlander/' says Finlayson, "he 
had formed the idea of establishing a Scotch colony, 
and intended bringing out a Gaelic school-master and 
a Scotch piper." Becoming tired of such a life, in 
1851 he leased his farm to some of his men, Thomas 
Munroe and others, and took his departure from the 
Island. The laborers left to themselves speedily be- 
came demoralized, so that returning after a time to 
find his farm neglected, the land lying uncultivated, 
and most of the property destroyed, the disgusted 

^°The ship Lord Western, drawing nineteen feet of water, loaded there in 
the summer of 1853, before Grant's article was written. This vessel was 
wrecked shortly afterward at Achosat a little north of Clayoquot. 



THE MUIRo, McKAY, AXD COOPER. 255 

captain sold the establishment for what he could get, 
and abandoned tlie country/^ 

The purchasers of Grant's establishments at Soke 
were the Muirs, Michel Muir being still there when 
I visited Vancouver Island in 1878, at which time 
the original sixty natives had been reduced by civili- 
zation, disease, and rum, to five.^^ 

During the summer of 1850, Joseph W. McKay 
was commissioned to explore that part of the island 
lying between Victoria and the newly discovered coal- 
mines at Nanaimo, with a view of opening the country 
to settlers. Several tracts were designated; but if 
the monopolists could not occupy a single point on 
Island or MamJand without the protection of palisades 
and armed bastions, how was the solitary agriculturist 
to plough his field and defend his family ? 

James Cooper,'^ in 1851, brought out from England 
in sections a small iron vessel, which, on arrival, he 
put together in Victoria, Many call this the first 
vessel in any manner constructed or launched from 



'' Sanuitl Hancock, TIartecn Years^ Resulence on the Nortlnvest ConJit, MS., 
217-18, wlio, by stress of weathei, was thrown upon (irant in his hermitage 
before his departure in 1851, reports him 's most generous gentleman.... 
having around him three or four servants, and aiimsing himself as best he 
could.' in 1850, besides Fort Victoria, there was but one small settlement 
at Soke. House Commons Rept. Sel. Com., 1857, 294. 

1- ' Sooke was the first place from which pdes and spars were exported. 
San Francisco, Shanghai, Australia, Hong Kong, Sandwich Islands, South 
America, and England, were points of exportation." Michel Muir, in Brit. 
Col. Sketches, MS., 24. 

i^Mr Cooper entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1844, 
as master in command of a vessel sailing between London and Fort Vancou- 
ver. In 1849 he wa.i captain of the bark Columbia. At the time 1 met him 
in 1878, he impressed me as a pleasant English gentlemen, with a mind more 
than ordinarily subject to the warp of fortune; consistent in his dislikes, 
which were lasting, harboring from year to year his hatred of the Hudson's 
Bay Company with unwavering persistency. He soon left the service of the 
company and became a settler on Vancouver Island. Viditing England in 
1857 he gave evidence against the company before the house of commons' 
select committee. 'Notwithstanding over twenty -five years have passed," he 
said to me, 'and any harsh feeling on my jjart may fairly be considered to 
have vanished, I state with all candor that difficulties experienced by niyselt 
in the early struggles of settlement in this country may be attributed to the 
monopoly and ailverse interests of the Hudson's Bay Company. ' A plain 
man, Cajitain Cooper tol.l me a plain, unvarnished tale, but his amanuensis, 
a young ])erson of more pretensions than parts, so clouded it with high-sound- 
ing words .vs greatly to obscure the blunt old sailor's meaning. 



256 SETTLEMENT OF VANCOUVER ISL.VXD. 

the Island, but they forget Nootka/* It was employed 
during the season of 1852 m trade at Fraser River, 
where the owner bought cranberries and potatoes 
from the natives for the San Francisco market. The 
Indians gathered cranberries, which grew in large 
quantities on the delta at the mouth of the Fraser 
liiver, supplying the vessel at the rate of seventy-five 
cents a barrel. These berries were sold in San Fran- 
cisco at a dollar a gallon. 

It was a new industry, and was not regarded Avith 
any degree of favor by the Hudson's Bay Company, 
which still held a license of exclusive trade with the 
Indians on the Mainland. It is true that this Hcensc 
referred more particularly to the peltry traffic, but 
the company were jealous of any interference in that 
quarter, and threw every obstacle in the way of any 
kind of commercial intercourse with the natives of 
the Mainland. ^^ Soon after Captain Cooper had opened 
this traffic, Douglas sent instructions to the officer in 
cliarge at Fort Langley, to buy all the cranberries the 
Indians could gather, and pay such a })rice for them 
as would keep other traders away. 

Cooper took up land at Metchosin, seven miles 
from the fort, and became a settler under the crown 
grant, being the first defection from the Hudson's 
Bay Company's service in that direction. Ho farmed 
three hundred acres, and called himself a colonist from 

" The ovnier, indeed, says it was the first on the Pacific coast. Cooper^s 
Mar. Matters, ^IS., 5. But we may surely count half a dozen before this, as 
at Neah Bay, Astoria, and elsewhere on the Columbia, and on the north coast. 
It is unsafe to call a thing first unless one is sure that nothing was before it. 

'^ ' To show how entirely dependent scttlei-s were upon tlie Hudson's ]iay 
Company: I found it necessary to apply to the company for the purchase of 
barrels, originally intended as salmon-barrels, for the jjurpose of holding the 
cranberries traded for on the Fraser River. Should 1 fail to secure such barrels, 
the time, labor, and expense I had been put to, to collect such cargo, would 
be lost. I had no thought, however, that a refusal would be made, consider- 
ing that to speak within bounds, the company had at that time at least a 
thousand barrels on hand, the prime cost of which to them would not cer- 

taijily exceed thirty cents each No barrels could be bought elsewhere. . . . 

I therefore applied to the company to sell me one hundred baiTcls. . .when, 
after much apparent concession, the favor was accorded to me of being allowed 
to purchase one hundred barrels at three dollars each cash.' Cooper's Mar. 
Matttrn, MS., 5-6. 



GRANT AND BLENKHORN. 257 

1851 to 1857, by which latter date he had arrived at 
the conclusion that the term signified little. High as 
ran his expectations, he was doomed to disappoint- 
ment as an agriculturist. Unlike Grant, he did 
not run away and rail, but railed and remained, and 
when last I saw him was still reviling the monopolists 
who had tricked him in the cranberry trade, and had, 
by their baneful breath, stifled his attempts at Met- 
chosin.^^ 

Cooper's partner at Metchosin as well as at the 
Fraser Delta was Thomas Blenkhorn, pronounced by 
Fitzwilliam before the select committee to be one 
of the most energetic settlers on the Island. Before 
coming hither he had been up and down the world 
somewhat, had lived some time in Australia, possessed 
a mind of wide range, and well tried by experience. 
Blenkhorn also carried on a lumber trade with San 
Francisco, and was in most ways an estimable man. 

Besides Grant's agriculturists, the Ilarpooner, 
which arrived in June 1849, brought out eight coal- 
miners to work the company's property at Fort 
Bupcrt. There were also on board two laborers for 
the fort farm. In 1850 the bark Norman Morrison 
arrived, bringing eighty immigrants; in June 1851, 
the Tory came into port witli one hundred and twenty 
hired labdrers, about one quarter of whom, with some 
coal-mining machinery the vessel brought, were sent 
to Fort Kupert." The Toru returned by way of 
Honolulu and Shanghai, carrying tea to England. 

Mr Blanshard, the first governor, states that when 

'^ 'After GrantcameCooper.'saysFinlayson. IlisL, r./.,MS.,48. 'He too 
had sanguine hopes . . . These two settlers wlio might be said to have complied 
Avith the first conditions, spent all their means, and tlic venture proved en- 
tirely unsuccessful. ' See also Cooper, in House Commons Bept. scl. com. J I. B. 
Affairs, 1857, 190. Fitzwilliam, in ih., 119, states that be purchased the land 
from the Hudson's Lay Company. 

^' ' Some have already l)een sent to Oregon, and some toother posts of the 
company. No preparation had been made here for tlieir reception, beyond 
erecting a couple of log- houses, or rather sheds. In these the remainder arc 
huddled together like cattle, as I have seen myself, to tlie number of thirty 
or tliiriy-five in each shed, men and women, married and single, without any 
kind of screen or partition to separate them.' Blanshard's Despatches, 12. 
Hist. Bkit. Col. 17 



258. SETTLEMENT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

he returned to England in 1851, besides the officers 
and servants of the Hudson's Ba}^ Company, there 
were about thirty settlers on the Island. Of these, 
some had formerly been in the service of the com- 
pany, but had withdrawn their connection, bought 
land, and had become agriculturists or stock-raisers. 
James Deans says that in 1852 there were in the 
vicinity of Fort Victoria but seven independent set- 
tlers, three of whom had formerly been in the com- 
pany's service. ^^ 

The town of Victoria was laid out in streets in 
1852, the western boundary being the harbor, the 
eastern, the present Government street, the southern 
the fort, and the northern, the present Johnston 
street.^^ Two trails led from the fort; one to the 
Songhies' camp, and on to McAuley Point, and 
through McKenzie Plains to Craigflower and Col wood, 
the other connecting with the town and also with Col- 
Avood, but passing round the north sides of Victoria 
and Esquimalt arms, and crossing the former at Qua- 
massin, that is to say, Seatangle, at the present bridge. 
When James Deans arrived, early the following year, 
where the city now stands was thick brush, with 
intervening cultivated patches. Besides the fort there 
were but twelve houses within the present city limits. 

Again, on the 16th of January, 1853, appeared the 
Norman Morrison, with two hundred additional colo- 
nists, who had engaged themselves to the company for 
five years, the reward for such service being land to 
the regal extent of twenty-five acres to laborers, and 
fifty acres to tradesmen, payable at the expiration of 
the term. It was a noble enterprise, well worthy the 

^^ Their names were James Yates, James Cooper, R. Anderson, R. Scott, 
James M. Reid, W. Thompson, and George Deans. Deans' Settlement, V. I., 
MS., 4. See also Brit. Col. Sketches, MS., 2. Besides the above, we find sigried 
to a settlers' petition to Governor Blanshard the names of the Muirs, at Soke, 
Michel, Archibald, Andrew, Robert, and John, senior and junior; Thomas 
Blenkhorn, Metchosin; Thomas Munroe, James Sangster, R. J. Staines, 
William Eraser, John McGregor, and William McDonald. In his estimate of 
thirty, Blanshard was as usual vague and undecided, though there may have 
been laborers enough to make up the number. 

^^ Finlay sons Letters, MS., ISth Oct. 1879. 



JA3kIES DEANS. 



conception of honest merchants and the management 
of parliament, this seizing lands without pay, expel- 
ling the natives, then putting men to subdue it who 
should take as pa}^ an infinitesimal part of the land 
which their own hands had made of value. 

Among these arrivals was James Deans, before men- 
tioned, who came out as laborer, and after a few weeks* 




■Macdonaia Kagr^ . ^"^ , ^^4^o 

\ FISGARD rocks'^ 

Ml. ^/ /^yiln^f£.c^enf\,^J' i, 



rr--i 




irn V ' 



dm 



SouTH End of Vancou\t:r Island, 1S53. 

service in the company's store w^as set to work on their 
farm at Craigflower, \vhere he remained half his term, 
serving the remainder among the sheep at the Lake 
Hill station. 

T. F. McElroy visiting Victoria in September 1853 
in company with Captain Rcid and daughter, of the 
Island, was met on landing by Andrew Muir, who 



260 SETTLEMENT OF VAXCOUVER ISLAND. 

introduced him to Mr Finlayson and William Atkin- 
son, after which he proceeded to Esquimalt, where 
the United States surveying steamer Active, Captain 
Alden, was anchored. McElroy states that James 
Cooper was residing there at the time, though Michel 
Muir affirms that there were no settlers at Esquimalt 
m 1855, and that the first houses were built where the 
navy-yard was subsequently placed. McElroy, an 
American, was delighted with Staines, who scourged 
his own countrymen more thoroughly than any for- 
eigner could have done. Next, the colonial academy, 
conducted by Robert Barr, was visited; afterward 
Thomas Baillie, whose residence was five miles from 
the fort. 

At the end of 1853, besides the 17,000 natives'" 
there were on the Island, men, women, and children, 
white and mixed, 450 persons, 300 of whom were at 
and between Victoria and Soke, 125 at Nanaimo, and 
the rest at Fort Rupert. Up to this time, in all, 19,807 
acres and 16 perches of land had been applied for 
under the grant, 10,172 acres being claimed by the 
Hudson's Bay Company, 2,374 acres by the Puget 
Sound Company, and the remainder by private per- 
sons."^ At first a deposit of only one dollar an acre 
was required from purchasers, but that system was 
soon abolished, and settlers were required to pay the 
full price of the land, one pound per acre, before 
occupying. At the beginning of 1854 not more than 
500 acres in all were under cultivation; and of this 
all but 30 acres at Soke and 10 acres at Metchosin 
was worked by the monopolists. '^ Three miles distant 
from the fort, Baillie farmed for the Hudson's Bay 
Company, while the lands of the Puget Sound Coni- 

^"Adopting Grant's estimate. See also Eattrays V. I. , 8. 

^^ Sixteen settlers occupied 1,696 acres, two roods, and sixteen perches; 
973 unoccupied acres were claimed by absentees. ' Altogether, ' says Grant, 
' including the fur and farming monopolists, there are 53 different claimants 
of land, about 30 of whom may be said to be bona fide, occupying and im- 
proving their land.' 

22 This is Grant's statement, and reduces to insignificance the efforts of 
Cooper with his 300 acres claimed. 



I 



CArXAIN LAXGFORD. 261 

pany were worked under four bailiffs. The fur com- 
pany had upon the Island 2,000 sheep, 1,700 r)f which 
in 1858 were at Lake Hill farm.^' 

Langford, after whom Langford Plains and Lang- 
ford Lake were named, was a Kentish farmer and 
whilom English army officer, who had been induced 
to enlist as he supposed in the service of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, which treated its servants with 
some kind of decency, and besides was reliable in 
money or rather trafficking matters, for there was no 
such thing there as money. He was to open a farm 
for them on Vancouver Island;^"* but on arrival, to 
his infinite disgust, he found himself a servant of the 
Puget Sound Company, and for his quarters two log- 
huts of one room each, one for himself and famity, and 
the other for his men. 

A petition from the settlers was presented in the 
house of commons, the 9th of March 1854, by Sir 
John Packington, who stated that the same was 
signed by residents of the Island, each of whom gave 
his place of abode and profession, and that he enter- 
tained no doubt that it had issued from the greater 
part of the respectable inhabitants of the Island. 
After reciting the contents of the petition, which 
stated that the five-years' grant to the fur-traders was 
about to expire, that the high price at which land 
was held, and the unsettled form of government, re- 
tarded progress, and which concluded by praying par- 
liament to provide a remedy, Mr Packington asked 
whether the connection of the company with the 
Island was about to cease, and whether it was the 
intention of her Majesty's ministers to establish a new 
form of government for Vancouver Island. To this 
Mr Peel replied that the connection was not about to 
terminate, and that the government had no power to 
remove the company unless it could be shown that 

^Deans' Settlemoit, V. I., MS., 24. 

^* So Captain Langford asserted, House Commons Rept. nel. com. H. B. Co. 
Affairs, 18o7, 290-7; but it would sccni that such stupidity on liia part 
merited but little better treatment than he received. 



262 SETTLEMENT OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 

no settlement was established on the Island, which 
h}^Dothesis the petition itself disproved. The com- 
pany were simply proprietors of the Island in trust 
for the settlers, and there need not necessarily be any 
connection between the company and the governor of 
the Island. It was true that the commission of gov- 
ernor was now held by an agent of the company, but 
it was open to the imperial government to appoint an 
officer independent of the company, at any time they 
should so please. 

Earl Fitzwilliam urged the same measure in the 
house of lords on the 12th of June. The Duke of 
Newcastle said that the government would bear it in 
mind, and advanced the now somewhat stale argu- 
ment that it w^as the gold excitement in California 
which had prevented speedier settlement; and so the 
petition was laid on the table. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

1850-1S52. 

James Dougi^s Nominated by Sir John Pelly for Governor — Earl Grey 
Refuses to Appoint Him — Richard Blanshard Chosen — His Arrival 
AT Victoria — Reads his Commission — Visits Fort Rupert — Relative 
Attitudes of the Governor and the Fur Company— Ruler of the 
Queen's Wilderness— Settlers and Subjects— No Material for a 
Council — Nomination op Council Postponed — John Sebastian 
Helmcken Appointed Magistrate at Fort Rupert — The Murdered 
Deserters— Character of Blanshard— His Unpleasant Position — 
Heavy Expenses and Ill-health- What the Settlers Think of it— 
Blanshard Appoints a Council, Resigns, Shakes the Dust from his 
Feet, and Departs from the Island — James Douglas Appointed 
Governor. 

While yet the granting of Vancouver Island to the 
Hudson's Bay Company for the purposes of coloniza- 
tion was in progress, six months and more prior to the 
consummation of the act, the draft of a governor's 
commission with instructions was made out, the only 
things lacking for a fresh departure in the much-loved 
line of domineering being a governor and a govern- 
ment. 

In a letter to Sir John Polly, dated the 31st of 
July 1848, Earl Grey intimated that the chief officer 
of the Hudson's Bay Company might now, were he so 
disposed, express his opinion as to the proper person 
to be recommended for the office of governor which was 
his privilege under the grant. Sir John did not hesi- 
tate to avail himself of his lordship's permission, and 
nominated for that office James Douglas, whose name 
appeared in a late report among certain papers laid 



264 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

before parliament, relative to the Island. The reasons 
given by Pelly for nominating Douglas were that he 
was a man of property, a chief factor of the fur com- 
pany, and a member of the board at Fort Vancouver 
for the management of the company's affairs west of 
tiie Hocky Mountains. This appointment Sir John 
did not intend should be permanent, but merely an 
expedient to bridge the time until the colony could 
afford to pay a governor not connected with the com- 
pany. Meanwhile the writer availed himself of the 
opportunity to submit to his lordship the names of 
certain persons qualified to hold commissions of the 
peace under act 1 and 2 George IV., cap. 66. His 
list comprised about all the officers of the company 
there at that time.^ 

In reply to this letter, Earl Grey saw no objection 
to the appointment of a chief factor of the company 
to act as governor as a temj^orary arrangement, al- 
though he apprehended that the issuing of a tem- 
porary commission would be attended with additional 
expense. 

This idea of Earl Grey, like others of colonization 
conceptions, was, to say the least, singular. A man 
upon the ground, with no additional expenses, no es- 
tablishment to keep up, would, according to his economy, 
cost more than would suffice to send out and support 
one specially appointed for that purpose. And if there 
should be additional expense, it would not fall upon 
the crown, but upon the fur company. The fact is, 
Earl Grey never for a moment intended that Douglas 
should then be made governor. He had other ends 
in view. It suited his purpose, however, to give this 
answer. As regarded the names proposed for com- 
missions of the peace, he had no objections to them, 
and promised to take the necessary steps for their ap- 
pointment. 

^ Their names were A. C. Anderson, John Tod, W. E. Tolmie, John Work, 
James Douglas, R. J. Staines, P. S. Ogden, A. McKinlay, J. M. Yale, Richard 
Grant, Donald INIanson, G. T. Allan, John Kennedy,, and Dugald McTavish. 



RICHARD BLANSHARD. 265 

It was a most politic provision on the part of the 
company, their right under tlie new charter or grant 
to nominate the governor, leaving it with the imperial 
government only to accept or to reject their choice. 
Naturally the first consideration in such selection was 
a willing instrument, not too wise, nor yet wholly a 
fool, for some fools are exceedingly stubborn. 

Earl Grey certainly did well to decline Douglas; it 
would have been a most impolitic measure, and one 
by means of which his enemies might have made him 
much trouble. What then should be the next move? 
The earl at length intimated to his friends of Fen- 
church street that, as there were many meml)ers of 
parliament opposed to the grant, and who would do 
all in their power to frustrate the harmonious work- 
ings of colonial affairs under the fur company, it might 
be as well in this instance for the crown to nominate 
as well as to appoint; at all events, the company would 
lose nothing in the end by waiving their right under 
the grant, in this first instance. 

The fur magnates expressed their unbounded confi- 
dence in the good judgment and fair intention of their 
noble friend of the government office, as well they 
might. If they could not have Douglas, if some noodle 
was required for a figure-head — for they knew that 
no very able or sensible man would assume the office 
under the circumstances — they could easily, even under 
the cloak of courteous consideration, make it so uncom- 
fortable for him that he would not long remain. So, 
when the name of Richard Blanshard was suggested 
by Earl Grey, never having heard ill of him, never 
having heard of him at all, Sir John Pelly offered 
no objection. The friends of his lordship's friends 
knew him, and that was sufficient. 

In his subsequent intercourse with the fur-traders, 
Blanshard was very precise on this point; he gave 
them constantly to understand that he did not belong 
to them, but to England. To her majesty alone he 
owed his appointment, and to her he should do his 



266 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

duty. His relations with the fur company differed in 
no wise from his relations with any other inhabitants 
of the Island ; he had no special relations v^/itli them. 

Governor Blanshard arrived at Victoria on the 10th 
of March 1850. From Panamd, the December pre- 
vious, he had written Earl Grey of his arrival at that 
port, of the non-appearance of Admiral Hornby, com- 
mander of the Pacific squadron, and of the absence 
of any means of conveyance in his long coastwise 
journey. And now having reached his destination, he 
might as well have never come. Except the palisaded 
square, which shut out more welcome than it enclosed, 
there was little to govern but seals and savages, 
abundantly able these many centuries to manage their 
affairs without the aid of her majesty's deputy. 

But faithful to his trust, Blanshard would do what 
he could. He had been sent thither to rule, and the 
rocks and the sea or whatsoever had ears should hear 
from him. 

Landing, he read his commission and proclamation. 
And that he might not be wholly dependent upon the 
almost tenantless isle for an audience, he begged John- 
son, captain of the government vessel Driver, which 
had carried him there, to listen to him. The captain 
kindly consented ; likewise Gordon of the Gormormit, 
with his officers in full uniform; the officers and ser- 
vants of the Hudson's Bay Company also lent their 
presence. The reading was in the mess-hall of the 
fort; and the sterile ceremony over, those present gave 
three cheers. The newly installed governor of this 
wilderness then returned to the vessel, there being no 
government house, inn, or other lodgings upon the 
land to receive him. Douglas was on the ground, 
ready to nullify with his superior powers any unfavor- 
able influence arising from the antagonism of Lord 
Grey's governor. 

For some time thereafter the government head- 
quarters of Vancouver Island were migratory. Being 



A FLOATING GOVERNMENT. 267 

on board the Driver, wherever that vessel went the 
government was obhged to go. The Driver set out 
to coast the Island, to visit Fort Rupert and many 
other points of interest. Thereupon the government 
concluded that its first duty was to survey its domain 
and minister to the benighted of distant parts accord- 
ing to their new necessities. At Beaver Harbor the 
governor looked into the working of coal, which was 
then attracting the attention of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, but he seems to have entertained no very 
high opinion as to the quantity or quahty. He insti- 
tuted a searching examination into the condition and 
wants of his subjects at this point, who, besides the 
savages and the eight miners, consisted of the oddity 
doctor and the mine-manager. Then he returned to 
his capital. And yet he was not happy. 

Blanshard was to serve without pay. Had Doug- 
las been confirmed, no expense would have been laid 
on the government; and this was used as an argu- 
ment why another should so serve. This of itself 
shows that neither Blanshard nor any one else enter- 
tained a very high opinion of Blanshard's woith, else he 
would never have been asked to serve his country for 
nothing, or if so asked he would certainly have de- 
clined. A thousand acres of land had been promised 
him before leaving London, which promise the com- 
pany construed into the use of a thousand acres, and 
not a full title in fee-simple. Now we all of us know of 
what value the use of a tract of wild land in a far-off 
out-of-the-way region might be to a penniless poli- 
tician, and who would be eventually the gainer were 
he so foolish as to attempt to improve such land. 
Such recompense was worse than no pay at all. 

His peregrinations over, the governor deigned to 
accept a bunk in the fort while a small house, offices, 
and garden were being prepared for him outside the 
palisades.^ Then he desired to know where were his 

' ' The piece of ground whereon now stand the buildings knoAAai as the 
Biuik of Biitisli North America, Barnard's Express office, the Adclphi saloon. 



268 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

thousand acres of land ; whereupon a rocky eminence 
two or three miles away was pointed out to him, where 
a tract had been set apart for government use in that 
vicinity where the government house now stands. 
Thousands of pounds would be necessary to make the 
place respectably habitable, and it was no wonder the 
governor's heart should quail, or that a huge disgust 
should take possession of him. 

In April 1851, the governor was notified by the 
managers of the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound 
companies, that they were about to occupy some land 
on the Island, and that the sum of four thousand 
pounds sterling was to be expended on public build- 
ings under the governor's direction, but subject to the 
approval of the monopoly management. The build- 
ings were to be erected near the fort, "Unless the 
colony is intended to be merely an enlarged depot of 
the Hudson's Bay Company," writes the governor, 
"which I do not conceive was the intention of her 
majesty's government in making the grant of the 
Island, it will be a waste of public money to expend it 
in the way they indicate, as the buildings will then 
be surrounded by their reserves, which they are neither 
prepared to use nor sell." 

The governor recognized no relation to the Hud- 
son's Bay Company other than that usually existing 
between ruler and subject. That the company held 
the contract for colonization, together with a monopoly 
of the soil, was nothing to him politically. It might 
affect appointments and freedom of legislation, but it 
could not change the natural attitudes of crown gov- 
ernor, crown colony, and fur corporation. 

On the other hand, the company cared nothing for 
the governor. As their noble friend Lord Grey had 
taken the trouble to ajjpoint him, and the appointee 

and the Cohnist office became the site of the government buildings. The 
well in front of the Colonist office is still known as Governor Blanshard's well, 
having been dug for his excellency's accommodation. Brit. Colonist, Aug. 8, 

1877. 



THAT TnOUSAlN'D ACRES. 269 

had taken tlio trouble to come so far over the two 
great oceans, they would treat him politely, that is if 
he would be humble and behave himself; but as for 
his governing them, that was simply ridiculous. He 
might issue all the mandates he pleased, but he would 
give little force to his authority without appeal to the 
chief factor, to Douglas, to the very man who had 
opposed him for the office, and who even now was in 
fact, if not in name, governor of the Island. 

Great indeed must have been his desire of ruling 
this wild island of the north-west when he was willing 
to accept the commission as governor, without salary, 
and pay his own expenses. True, there was the prom- 
ise of Sir John Peily, of a thousand acres of land, 
such as he should anywhere select. This, at a pound 
an acre, was a thousand pounds to begin with, and 
when settlers should flock thither, as he was sure they 
would, and a civil list should be formed, and fat colo- 
nial revenue should roll in from land sales and royal- 
ties on coal, then the whilom liberalityand disinterested 
services of the first governor would be remembered, 
and a comfortable consideration would be awarded 
him, and he would be the father of his country for 
many years to come. Moreover, his thousand acres 
of land, from one thousand pounds in value, might 
increase to twenty thousand. Then who should say 
that honor was not profitable ? 

But alas ! for human hopes. Sir John Pelly was 
governor only of the London part of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. Mr Douglas, who acted as agent for 
the sale of the land on Vancouver Island, knew noth- 
ing of Sir John's promise, Avhich Mr Blanshard had 
failed to secure in writing, knew nothing of thousand- 
acre gifts, and referred the simple-minded governor 
to England for the fulfilment of the promise. INIr 
Blanshard then begged one hundred of the promised 
thousand acres, that he might occupy them as a settler, 
if they should not be given him as governor. But no. 
The promised thousand acres, he was finally told, were 



270 GOVERKMEXT ESTABLISHED. 

intended for the use of the governor only while he 
was upon the Island. He might select, subdue, and 
beautify the tract for his successor, should he so 
please, but he could not sell nor pocket any of the 
proceeds of it. 

This is Mr Blanshard's side of the story. The gov- 
ernor might easily have misunderstood Sir John, or 
the latter may wilfully have deceived him. However 
that may have been, the company assuredly had no 
right to give land to the governor, or to any one 
else, unless they chose to pay for it themselves, and 
that in this instance they were not likely to do, as 
Blanshard was not their choice for the office, and they 
were evidently not disposed to go far out of their way 
to make his stay in their isle pleasant. 

This we shall see amply demonstrated as we pro- 
ceed. The governor's passage out cost him three 
hundred pounds. Of this the company paid one hun- 
dred and seventy-five pounds; and this was all he 
ever received from them. When he returned, a Brit- 
ish sloop of war carried him to San Francisco, and 
thence he paid his own passage to London. During 
the time he spent upon the Island his living cost him 
eleven hundred pounds a year, and for such articles as 
he was obliged to purchase from the company he paid 
what was called the cash price, which was the price 
charged to strangers, and about three hundred per 
cent over London cost.^ 

Nor did the governor's troubles end here. In- 
deed, they had only just begun. He had been in- 
structed before sailing for this region, upon his arrival 
to nominate a council. But whom should he nomi- 

' ' The price of everything was regulated by that iii California; and as the 
gold fever was then at its height, living there was of course extremely expen- 
sive. . .They had three several prices in the Hudson's Bay Company's stores 
at tliat time, one for the superior officers of the company, another for the ser- 
vants, and a third, which they called their cash price, at which they sold the 
goods to settlers. . .The officers received their goods at thirty-three per cent 
increase upon the cost price; the servants and inferior officers, varying from 
tifty to one hundred.' Blanshard, in House Commons licpt., 288. 



AT BEAVER HARBOR. 271 

nate? At Beaver Harbor McNeill had informed him 
that there were ten thousand natives thereabout, who 
vere fast disappearing, notwithstanding the sale of 
spirituous liquors had been prohibited, and the pro- 
hibition for some time past enforced. These might 
do, for lack of better material, as subjects, but they 
were hardly fit to take part in regulating the affairs 
of a highly civilized colony. The council should be 
selected from settlers, but as yet there were no set- 
tlers there. Few of the fur-hunting fraternity pos- 
sessed the landed property qualification necessary to 
entitle them to vote for members of assembly ; and 
even had they possessed the requisite qualifications, 
the council so chosen must have been wholly drawn 
from the ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company, whom 
it was the governor's determined purpose to control, 
instead of being controlled by them. 

His position was certainly anomalous. Made gov- 
ernor of a colony which was no colony, he was sent 
to a wilderness to control settlers not yet arrived, 
and who, should they ever be so unfortunate as to 
reach that shore, would, in his opinion, find pre- 
carious subsistence.* Nor was an immediate arrival 
of settlers at all likely. In his dilemma he concluded 
to ask further instructions of his government. The 
material interests of his empire would scarcely suffer 
in the mean time. 

For the colliers at Beaver Harbor, who had mani- 
fested a bias toward lawlessness, the governor thought 
best to appoint a magistrate, and, as there was no one 
else available, he named for that office John Sebastian 
Helmcken, the newly arrived doctor, to whom I have 
taken occasion to allude before, then domiciled at Fort 
Rupert. 

In vain the governor had hoped that one coming 

* 'The quantity of arable land, or land that can be made arable,' he writes to 
Earl Grey, the Stli of April 1850, 'is, so far as I can ascertain, exceedingly 
limited throughout the Island, which consists almost entirely of broken ranges 
of rocky hills intersected by ravines and valleys so narow as to render thciu 
useless for cultivation.' BlanslianVs Dcfpalcliea, 2. 



272 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISKED. 

fresh from the mother-country, "a stranger," as he 
expresses it, "to the petty brawls that have occurred 
and the ill-feehngs they have occasioned between the 
Hudson's Bay ComjDany and their servants," would 
be free from the contaminating influences of selfish 
interests.^ But this w^as, perhaps, too much to expect 
of any man. In the evolution of civilization, even- 
handed justice never flies west. At all events, the 
governor soon repented of his choice. He had made 
the appointment contrary to his better judgment, being 
impelled thereto by the necessities of the case.*' 

Meanw^hile, tiu^e hung heavily on Blanshard's hands. 
Set down upon the bare roclcs of this mist-enveloped 
isle, with the only white people on it, those on whom 
he was dependent for everything, for subjects, for 
society, and for creature comforts, opposed to his rule 
in all their interests, he felt himself to be utterly 
powerless and forlorn, and could scarcely realize that 
he was governor except by taking out his commission 
and reading it to himself occasionally. 

During the summer of 1850, a case occurred at 
Fort Bupert, while yet John Sebastian wore ermine, 
which casts dark reproach, both upon the Hudson's 
Bay Company and the officers of the imperial gov- 
ernment, and which tended in no wise to reconcile 
Blanshard to his anomalous position. 

^The governor promptly acknowledged his mistake. Writing of him 
from Fort Rupert, on the 19th of October 1850, he says: ' Tlie only causes 
are between the Hudson's Bay Company and their servants; and, as being a 
paid servant of the former, he cannot be considered an impartial person. ' 
Again, on the 29th of March 1851, being then at Victoria, he states that Mr 
Helmcken having been called upon since his arrival here, 'to give up, or 
furnish copies of, his official correspondence while magistrate, to the Hudson's 
Bay Company's agent, who thus used his authority over Mr Helincken_ as 
cliief factor in the company's service, has quite conhrmed me m my opinion 
of the impropriety of making appointments among the comx^any's servants.' 
BkinsharcVs Despatches, 4, 9. 

^ ' As there are no independent settlers, all cases that can occur requiring 
magisterial interference are disputes between the representatives of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company and their servants. To appoint the former magistrates, 
would be to make them judges m their own causes, and to arm them with 
additional power, which few of them would exert discreetly.' Blanshard's 
Despatches, 3. 



CALIFORNIA GOLD. 273 

The ship England, on her way from the southern 
coast to Fort Rupert for coals, stopped at Victoria for 
sailors, the vessel being short of hands. The Cali- 
fornia gold excitement was everywhere raging, and 
sailors willingly risked their lives to free themselves 
from service. From one of the company's vessels 
then lying at Victoria, three men deserted to the Eng- 
land, which then continued her way to Fort Rupert. 
Meanwhile notice was sent to Rupert of the deserters, 
who thereupon became frightened, left the England, 
and took to the woods, intending to join the vessel 
at another port. Indians were sent in pursuit with 
orders from Blenkinsop, then acting for the company 
at Fort Rupert, to bring in the deserters dead or 
alive. Four days afterward the Indians returned and 
claimed the reward, saying that they had killed them 
all. It was true. The sailors had been shot down in 
the forest by savages set upon them by an officer of 
the Hudson's Bay Company.^ Blenkinsop gave direc- 
tions to have buried the bodies of the murdered men 
^Yhere they lay, and let the matter be hushed, but 
]\Iuir insisted that they should be interred at the 
fort, and it was done. Very naturally the colliers 
were furious. They did not hesitate to charge the 
Hudson's Bay Company with having instigated the 
murder, and they refused any obedience to the officers 
of the company or to Helmcken as magistrate. The 
governor had no force whatever with which to appre- 
hend the murderers, and no people from whom to draw 
a force. Sa3^s Blanshard, ' the only safeguard of 
the colony," by which term the governor dignifies the 
revolted colliers — for of a surety the Hudson's Bay 
Company were always their own safeguard — "consists 
in the occasional visits of the. cruisers of the Pacific 



^ ' Two conflicting stories were in circulation at once, which, being traced 
to the same source, raised suspicions of foul play, and caused the report that 
I have previously mentioned, viz.: that the unfortunate men had been mur- 
dered by order of the Hudson's Bay Company.' Letter, Governor lUanshard to 
Earl Grey, 19th Oct. 1S50. l\Iichel Muir, who was at Fort Rupert at the 
time, confirms what Governor Blanshai'd said. Brit. Col. Skeicli^s, MS,, 15, 16.. 
Hi8T. Ceit. Col. 18 



274 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

squadron, which only occur at rare mtervals, and for 
short calls," 

Fortunately for the governor's desires, on the 2 2d 
of September 1850, about a month after the murderous 
affair, H. M. S. Daedalus, Captain Wellesley, arrived 
at Victoria, when the governor went on board and 
proceeded at once to Rupert. 

Now mark the course of justice pursued by the 
officers of the imperial government. Instead of pro- 
ceeding against the instigators of the murder, and 
arresting the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
as they should have done, they direct the full force 
of their vengeance against the natives. Helmcken, 
the newly fledged magistrate, cognizant of the whole 
aflair, and well knowing who were the guilty persons, 
and what hand he himself had had in it, goes to the 
Newittee camp, twelve miles distant, and loudly de- 
mands the surrender of the murderers. The savages 
acknowledge the murder, but plead that they were 
only executing orders. Truer to themselves and to 
the right than were the white men, they refused to 
give up the perpetrators of the deed, but offered to give 
up the property paid them by the white men for the 
commission of the crime. This did not satisfy the 
European justice-dealers. Servants of the Hudson's 
Bay Company had been slain by order of the officers 
of the Hudson's Bay Compan}^ Some one must be 
punished; and as they did not wish to hang themselves, 
they must find victims among their instruments. As 
the magistrate was unable to accomplish their purpose, 
Wellesley sent a force under Lieutenant Burton, in 
three boats of the Dxdalus, against the Newittees. 
Finding their camp deserted. Burton destroyed the 
village, and made a bonfire of all the property he could 
find. The following summer H. M. S. Daphne, Cap- 
tain Fanshawe, arrived. Meanwhile the Newittees 
had rebuilt their village, supposing the white men 
satisfied with the injury already inflicted. One day 
while holding a potlach, and being at peace, as they 



DISMAL GUBERNATORIAL PROSPECTS. 273 

believed, with the white men, the Daphne's boats, 
under Lieutenant Lac}^, crept into their harbor, and 
announced their arrival by a discharj^e of musketry. 
Men, women, and cJiildren were mercilessly cut down, 
persons innocent of any thought of wrong against 
their murderers, and their village again destroyed. 
Then the Daphne sailed away. Justice was satisfied : 
and Blenkinsop and the rest of them went about their 
work as usual. 

By this time the reader can judge pretty well the 
character of the colonial governor. First we cannot 
but regard him as a good, honest man, but assuredly 
not a very shrewd one. In fact he did not claim Avorldly 
wisdom or any special clearness of intellect. Name 
and position were primary considerations with him. 
If shelter and food came with them, well; if not, there 
would still be greatness to feed on. Before the house 
of commons select committee, five years after his 
return from the Northwest Coast, the ex-governor 
could not tell whether the grant of the Island had 
been made in 1848 or in. 1849, he thought during the 
former year. On his way out he lost his commission 
papers in the Chagres River, and seemed every way 
the son of misfortune. 

Yet he was very much of a gentleman, and a strictly 
conscientious man. His position at Vancouver Island 
w^as a most trying one. The ill-feeling of the com- 
pany toward him, added to ill-health and lack of funds, 
stripped his position of its dignity, and degraded him 
to the level of a common practitioner in arbitrating 
the disputes brought before him. As he had been 
called to the bar, he was cognizant of the law and 
familiar with the practice. As there were no means 
of paying a recorder, he was obliged to administer 
justice himself, and w4ien he wanted a constable he 
swore one in. 

Now he could but ask himself why he had accepted 
this miserable post. He had had experience as a colo- 



276 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

nizer in the West India Islands, in British Honduras, 
and in India,' and he saw no reason wliy he should not 
succeed in the newly granted isle. But he soon learned 
to his cost and sorrow that he was not wanted. A 
governor was sadly out of place there at that time, 
Avorse than a supernumerary. There was nothing for 
him to do but to act as ordinary magistrate, and de- 
cide disputes between the company and their servants. 

This was exactly what the Hudson's Bay Company 
did not desire. Of all things they abhorred interfer- 
ence. They were not accustomed to it. Absolute 
obedience on the part of subordinates had been the 
basis of their internal economy for the past century or 
two, and to have now a magistrate come between 
them and their servants, who seemed suddenly to find 
themselves surrounded by discomforts, and the vic- 
tims of alleged impositions which they had never be- 
fore thought of, was unendurable.^ 

Hitherto he -had regarded himself as a man of some 
pretensions, and under ordinary circumstances would 
not be likely to forget himself or his mission. To be 
governor of a crown colony, though his domain were 
barren rocks and tenant! ess, was to snuff the atmos- 
phere of royalty, and dwell beneath the shadow of 
the crown. It is sweet to rule, to dominate our 
fellows, to walk as gods among men, to sit the object 
of even the hollow forms we know their adoration to 
be, and our governor was by no means above the 
average man in this respect. He had come far from 
home and friends for the poor privilege of being called 
ruler of this wilderness; but never in his life was his 
presence so insignificant, or his influence less felt. He 
was here a nonentity, and of all his liege subjects the 
least. 

It was the irony of delegated rule, this planting of 

* ' Were there many of those disputes ? ' asked Viscount Goderich of Mr 
Blanshard. 'A great many, ' was the reply. ' On what ground ? ' ' Discon- 
tent among the servants.' 'At being ill-treated by the company?' 'They 
considered themselves ill-treated; that they had been brought out there 
under a delusion, and had been promised many things which were not ful- 
filled.' Blanshard, in House Commons Bept., 289. 



AWFUL IIlRECtULARITY. 277 

a poor man upon these distant and inhospitable rocks, 
with dominion over them. Though backed by the 
greatest nation on earth, he was more helpless than 
the seventh wife of a savage. Nature was there, 
whence man draws all his arts of governing, but he 
was least of nature's subjects. 

Yet in all things Blanshard was as straightforward 
as the historiographer Yu, of whom Confucius wrote 
that when good government prevailed in his state he 
was like an arrow, and when bad government pre- 
vailed he was like an arrow. The qualities of mind 
and heart he might have displayed had opportunity 
been his, it is useless for us to speculate upon. There 
was absolutely nothing here for him to do, and like 
a sensible man he saw it and determined to resign. 
There was no glory to be obtained in so inglorious a 
situation. The months passed by and no settlers ar- 
rived, no sales of land were effected, and no coal had 
been found which promised profitable returns. A line 
of steamers had been put on between San Francisco 
and the Oregon country, else the facilities for commu- 
nication with home and the busy world were of the 
most meagre and unreliable description. To add to 
the governor's unhappy forebodings, gold had been 
discovered on the Spokane liiver, and there was now 
every indication that the Scotch colliers and fur-hunt- 
ers would hasten thither en onasse, leaving him with- 
out a solitary subject. 

Although tne temper of tne governor was kept 
continually stirred by petty slights and innuendoes, 
there was but one open rupture between him and the 
head of the fur company, which, considering the irri- 
tating circumstances under which they were placed, 
speaks well for both these gentlemen. 

The circumstance I allude to was the illegal sign- 
ing of a ship-register upon a cliange of masters. It 
appears to have been the custom of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, and admitted under the navigation act, in 



278 GOVERXMEXT ESTABLISHED. 

the absence of a crown officer, for the chief factor to 
sign the registers of sea-going vessels. 

One day the newly appointed master of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company's schooner Cadhoro brought Blan- 
shard the register of the vessel, remarking that he 
was not at all satisfied with some alterations which 
had been made, and asked if the company's servants 
possessed the right to make such alterations. The 
governor replied that they did not, at the same time 
telling^ him that if he would brinsf him the reo-ister he 
would sign it. 

Next day the Cadhoro put to sea, the master not 
having again seen the governor, and the register hav- 
ing been signed by Douglas. On the return of the 
schooner the governor summoned the master and 
Douglas into his presence. Both promptly appeared. 
The master was then ordered to produce the register, 
which he did, whereupon the governor pointed out to 
him that -it had been illegally signed. With this ad- 
monition the governor bound them in their own per- 
sonal security to appear again if called upon, and then 
discharged them. As Blanshard left the island shortly 
afterward, this was the last of the affair. 

On the 18th of November, 1850, Blanshard wrote 
Earl Grey two letters, in the first of which he asked 
leave to visit England to attend to private affairs ; in 
the second he tendered his resignation, and solicited 
an immediate recall from the colony, on the ground 
of continued attacks of ague, remarking, also, that his 
private fortune was "utterly insufficient for the mere 
cost of living here, so high have prices been run up 
by the Hudson's Bay Company, and as there are no 
independent settlers, every requisite must be obtained 
from them." 

His next despatch, under date February- 3, 1851, 
embodies a report of occurrences on the island since 
his arrival. The only real land sale was that to Grant 
at Soke, and he had assigned his title to the Hudson's 
Bay Company. Tod, a servant of the company, had 



BLAXSHARD RESIGNS. 279 

ploughed a few acres near the fort, but fearful lest 
his title, held only by verbal agreement with Douglas, 
should never be secured to him, he became alarmed, 
and ceased operations, leaving unfinished a house that 
he was building. "\Yith the exception of a Canadian 
who has squatted near Rocky Point, there is not 
another cultivator on the Island." He had written 
Sir John Pelly requesting information concerning 
the Puget Sound Company resers'e, but had received 
no reply. ^ 

In his despatch of the 12th of Februar\', lie re- 
ports on an account of the Hudson's Bay Comj^any 
against the colony presented for his approval, and 
which he signed with a protest. ^*^ The public seal 

' ' This tract contains, I am informed, nearly thirty square miles of the best 
part of the Island, and they are already attempting to seU small lots to their 
own servants at greatly advanced rates. I consider this an extremely unfair 
proceeding. The terms of the grant of the Island expressly state that "all 
lands shall be sold except such as are reserved for public purposes," and in 
consideration of the trouble aud expense they may incur, the Hudson's Bay 
Company are allowed the very handsome remuneration of ten per cent on all 
sales they may eflect, and on all royalties. Not satisfied with this, thcj- aro 
grasping at the whole price of the laud, by monopolizing this vast district, 
making it a free gift to themselves, and then selling it for their own profit, as 
they are attempting to do. In proof of this, I may mention that an Euglish- 
man of the name of Chancellor arrived here from California a few weeks ago, 
with the intention of settling. The agent oflered to sell him laud on the 
" company's reserve," which he declined, as he preferred another part of the 
Island, but found so manj' diffculties tlirown in the way that he at last pro- 
nounced the purchase impracticable, aud is leaviug the colonj- in disgust. He 
told me that he was the forerunner of a partj' of several British subjects 
at present in California, who were merely waiting for his report to decide 
whether they would settle in Vancouver Island or the United States.' Blan- 
shard'n Dexpatches, IS. 

" ' The account asserts that they have'expended 8*2,736, of which $2, 130 are 
for goods paid to Indians to extinguish their title to the land about S'ictoria 
and Soke harbours, the remainder also for goods paid to Indians for work 
done for the colon}-, pro^-isions and ammunition for the same Indi;ins. The 
receipts amount to .'Jl.-iSQ, from which ten per cent is to be deducted, accord- 
iug to the charter of grant to the Hudson's Bay Company, and consists en- 
tirely of roj-alties on coal for the last two years; land sales there are none, as 
I have preWously informed your lonlship. On examining the account, I found 
that for the goods paid to the Indians a price was charged three times as great 
as what they are in the habit of paying them at for their own work; respect- 
ing this, and some inaccuracies I detected in the account, I addressed a letter 
to the agent; he corrected the errors, but made no alteration in the prices, 
and in the course of tlie conversation gave me to umlerstand that they did not 
expect the charter of grant to be renewed at the expiration of the five years, 
January 1854, and that they would be entitled to a reimbursement of their ex- 
penditure. At this rate, they may continue for the next three years, pa>-ing 
away a lew goods to Indians to extiuguish their claims to the sod, and by at- 



280 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

of the colony of Vancouver Island, and her majesty's 
warrant and sign-manual authorizing and directing 
its use, were transmitted by Earl Grey to Governor 
Blanshard, arriving in midsummer 1851. 

Before sending in his resignation, Blanshard recom- 
mended the home government to impose duty on the 
importation and manufacture of ardent spirits, the 
dangerous tendency of whose introduction was just 
then freshly appearing in the demoralization of the 
natives about Fort Rupert, and the riotous tendencies 
of the colliers at Beaver Harbor. This liquor was 
not supplied by the Hudson's Bay Company, which 
treated the natives with every consideration, better, 
some said, than their own servants. But being brought 
thither by merchant vessels visiting the coast, it was 
impossible to prevent the inhabitants of the Island 
from obtaining it. Nor, indeed, could the government 
have prevented it had the suggestion of the governor 
been promptly acted upon. 

Blanshard had suffered much from ill -health, as 
well as from poverty; else, perhaps, he might have 
fought his fate longer, if he had thought the place 
worth fighting for. There had never been the slight- 
est chance for him from the day of his appointment. 
Being strong in London, being absolute upon the 
Island, the monopolists were sure to prevail. And 
they knew it from the first. Earl Grey might pre- 
tend to drive, and Blanshard might amuse himself at 
playing governor, but all this time the fur-traders 
were manoeuvring for their man, and before Blanshard 
had resigned, although Douglas had not then his ap- 
pointment, yet he had received a letter from the Lon- 
don office stating that he had been recommended, and 
would undoubtedly receive the appointment. 

On the 3d of April 1851, Earl Grey wrote Gov- 
ernor Blanshard, saying that her Majesty had been 

taching an ideal value to their goods, they will at the end of that time appear 
as creditors of the colony to an overwhelming amount, so that the foundation 
will be laid of a colonial debt, which will forever prove a burden.' Blanshard's 
Despatches, 8. 



I 



PROVISIONAL COUNCIL. 281 

graciously pleased to accept his resignation as gov- 
ernor of the colony of Vancouver Island. Whereat 
Blanshard was also graciously pleased, and the now 
thoroughly fagged officers of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
wany were most of all graciously pleased. 

Blanshard received this welcome intelligence in 
August. His successor had not yet been appointed, 
but it was now well understood that Douglas would 
be the next governor. As he deemed it necessary to 
leave the little authority he had swa3^ed in official 
hands, on the 27th of August Blanshard nominated 
a provisional council, subject to the confirmation of 
the imperial government, consisting of three members, 
James Douglas, James Cooper, and John Tod, to 
whom he administered the usual oath. Then in the 
ship Daphne, on the 1st of September 1851, he turned 
his back forever on what had proved to him a most 
unfortunate isle." 



^^ "When the settlers learned what had been done, they directed the follow- 
ing communication to the governor: 
' To his Excelkncij Richard Blanshard, Esquire, Governor of Vancouver Island. 

' ilay it please your excellency: We, the undersigned, inhabitants of 
Vancouver's Island, having Icarnecl with regret that your excellency has re- 
signed the government of this colony, and understanding that the govern- 
ment has been committed to a chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
cannot but express our unfeigned surprise and deep concern at such an ap- 

fiointment. Tlie Hudson's Bay Company being as it is a great trading 
)ody, must necessarily have interests clashing with those of independent 
colonists. Most matters of a political nature will cause a contest between 
the agents of the company and the colonists. Many matters of a judicial 
nature also will undoubtedly arise, in which the colonists and the company 
or its servants will be contending parties, or the upper servants and the lower 
sen'auts of the company will be arrayed against each other. We beg to ex- 
press in the most emphatical and plainest manner our assurance that impar- 
tial ilecisions cannot be expected from a governor who is not only a member 
of the company, sharing its profits, his share of such profits rising and falling 
as they rise and fall, but is also charged as their chief agent with tlie sole 
representation of their trading interests in this Island aaid the adjacent 
coasts. 

' Furthermore, thus situated, the colony will have no security that its 
public funds will be duly disposed of solely for the bcnelit of the colony in 
general, and not turned aside in any degree to be applied to the private pur- 
poses of the company, by disproportionate sums being devoted to tlie im- 
provement of that tract of land held by them, or otherwise unduly employed. 
Under these circumstances, we beg to acquaint your excellency with our deep 
sense of the absolute necessity there is, for the real good and welfare of the 
colony, that a council should be immediately appointed, in order to provide 
some security that the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company shall not be 



282 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

For twenty years subsequent to 1824, John Mc- 
Loughlin, as chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, residing at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia 
Kiver, was sole dominator of the Northwest Coast. 
Then, as I have elsewhere said, because of his human- 
ity toward distressed emigrants, or as the London 
management might express it, because of his undue 
famiharity with United States settlers, and in order 

llowed to outweigh and ruin those of the colony in genera. 1 We, who join 
1 expressing these sentiments to your excellency, are iinfortunately but a 
ery small number, but we respectfully beg your excellency to consider that 
we, and we alone, represent the interests of the Island as a free and inde- 
pendent British colony, for we constitute the whole body of the independent 
settlers, all the other inlialjitants being in some way or other so connected 
with and controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company as to be deprived of free- 
dom of action in all matters relating to the public affairs of the colony, some 
indeed by their own confession, as may be proved if necessary. And we fur- 
ther allege our firm persuasion, tlaat the untoward influences to which we 
liave adverted above are likely, if entirely unguarded against not only to 
prevent any increase of free and independent colonists in the Island, but pos- 
itively to diminish their present numbers. 

* We therefore humbly request your excellency to take into your gracious 
consideration the propriety of appointing a council before your excellency's 
departure; such being the most anxious and earnest desire of your excellency's 
most obedient aud humble servants, and her majesty's most devoted and loyal 
subjects. 

' James Yates, Robert John Staines, James Cooper, Thomas Monroe, Wil- 
liam McDonald, James Sangster, 'John Muir, senior, William Eraser, Andrew 
Muir, John McGregor, John Muir junior, Michel Muii', Robert Muir, Archi- 
bald Muir, Thomas Blenkhorn.' 

The commander of the Daphne, in return for the hospitality extended him 
at Fort Victoria, charged the company, an behalf of the imperial government, 
with Blanshard's passage to Panama, the governor, as before stated, paying 
out of his o^^Ti pocket his expenses from that point to England. A bill 
amounting to £47 15s. had likewise been presented to Blanshard for the ex- 
penses of the Dcedalus in her trip to Fort Rupert. 

Cooper, Mar. Matters, MS., 4, states that Blanshard remained on the 
Island eighteen or twenty months. Grant, Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 320^ 
says he remained 'little more than a year.' Blanshard himself calls it. House 
Commons Eept., H. B. Co. Affairs, 1857, 'nearly two years.' It is safe enough 
to date his departure about September or October 1851; his last letter written 
Earl Grey from the Island was dated the 30th of Augaist. Finlaysons Hist. 
V. I., MS., 47 et passim. Finlayson was on the ground during the entii-e resi- 
dence of Governor Blanshard in tlie Island. Cooper, 2Iar. Matters, IMS., 4, 
says ' the expense of living was so enormously in excess of the Hudson's Bay 
Companj^'s representations, and every possible difficulty being thrown in his 
way, . . .he was forced to resign.' The settlers naturally sympathized with the 
discomfited governor. Says Grant, Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxvii. 320. 'His 
loss was very much to be regretted, as he was a gentleman in every way 
qualified to fulfil the duties of his position with credit to himself, aud with 
prosperous results to the country.' The Despatches of Governor B'ai/gJiard to 
the Secretary of State, 26th December 1849 to 30th August 1851, subsequently 
printed at the government ofiice, New Westminster, contains all the letters 
sent to Earl Grey by the governor during his stay upon the Island. 



DOUGLAS ArrOlXTED GOVERNOR 2S3 

to weaken him in his position and pave the way toward 
his final overthrow, the supreme power on the Pacific 
was vested in a board of management, consisting of 
chief factors McLougl din, Douglas, and Ogdon. After 
the retirement of ilcLougldin, Douglas and Ogden 
continued to manage matters as a board, with their 
head-quarters still at Fort Vancouver, Finlayson, 
meanwhile, remaining in charge at Fort Victoria. 

In midsummer 1849, nine months prior to the ar- 
rival of Governor Blanshard, Douglas completed the 
removal of the company's head-quarters to Fort Vic- 
toria, and took up his permanent residence on the 
Island, ^^ Subsequently, he erected for his family a com- 
modious dwelling on the south side of James Bay. 
Dugald McTavish was left in charge at Fort Vancouver, 
Finlayson assumed the position of chief accountant at 
Fort Victoria, and the affairs of the company still 
continued to be administered by chief factors Douglas 
and Ogden, who constituted the board of management 
on the Pacific.^^ 

Thus, under this mighty pressure of gnat-straining 
and camel-swallowing passed the first two j'cars of 
attempts at colonial rule on Vancouver Island. In 
September 1851 James Douglas was made governor 
of the colony, and took the oath of office the fol- 
lowing November. Thus at last were united in one 
person the authority and interests of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, and the authority and interests of the 
colonial government. \Viser in his day than Blan- 
shard, Douglas succeeded in securing to himself a 
salary of eiglit hundred pounds a year as governor of 
the colony, in addition to his emoluments as chief fac- 

1^ It was about the middle of June that Douglas with his family removed 
to Victoria. An obituary notice in the Bnlush Colonist of 8th Aug. 1877, 
places the date of his arrival 'a few months after ' that of Governor Blanshard, 
and others give other dates. But Michel Muir, wlio landed in June 1849, 
states that Douglas came from Fort Vancouver with his family four days 
after his arrival. Brit. Col. SMchc^ MS., 21. 

^^Cmte, in IT. D. Co. Er., 11. B. Co. Clii„i.% 107-0; Fmlaysons UK. V. I., 
MS., 33; Brit. Colouidt, Aug. 8, 18G7; McKinlai/'s Xar., MS., 8. 



284 GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED 

tor of the Hudson's Bay Company. From this time 
up to 1859 he continued to fill both positions. 

And now all is serene again throughout this region. 
The fur-traders have triumphed. They have obtained 
not only a crown grant, but a crown government. On 
Vancouver Island they are the crown ; and until the 
settlers shall become stronger than the company, their 
absolutism is assured. The next chapter I devote to 
the life and character of James Douo^las. 



ti 



CHAPTER XVII. 

JA^IES DOUGLAS. 

Birth and Fducation-— Enters the Service of the Northwest Company 
— Friendship of McLoughlin — Opportunity — What He should 
Know — His Life in New Caledonia — Overcome by Love — Meets and 
]\L\rries Nelia Connolly — Establishes Fort Connolly — His Atten- 
tion to Business and his Strict Obedience— Becomes Chief Trader 
—Then Chief Factor — Visits California — Accountant and Gen- 
eral Superintendent of Forts — Active in the Establishing op 
Fort Yictorxa — His Coldness toward Emigrants — Quarrels with 
McLoughlin — Removes to Victoria — Is Made Governor — And 
Knighted — Visits Europe — Physique and Character — Douglas 
and McLoughlin Compared. 

James Dougl^vs was born in 1803 at Jamaica. His 
father was a descendant of the earl of Angus, the 
Black Douglas of Scottish history; his mother was a 
Creole. At an early age he was taken by his father 
to Lanark, Scotland, where he was educated. He 
was scarcely seventeen years old^ when he entered 
the siRrvice of the Northwest Company as apprenticed 
cierk, and was sent to Fort William, on Lake Supe- 
rior, where McLoughlin was then stationed. 

Upon the coalition the following year, Douglas was 
about to retire to Scotland in company witli two dis- 
satisfied brothers then leaving tlie service ; but he was 
persuiided by JMcLoughlin, who had taken a fancy to 
him^ to remain. 

^This according to ^Irs Harvey, JJfe McLmicfMin, MS., 37. Wadclington, 
FroMe.r Mines, 35, says he was only fourteen years of age when lie left Eng- 
land, but this authority is not reliable. Among the many notices and testi- 
monials extant of Incril writers and speakers, one would expect to find 
something concerning the early career of such a man; even the family archives 
are singularly silent in this regard. 

(2SoN 



286 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

"Stay with me, my lad," he said, ''and you shall be 
to me as a son." 

So when McLoughlin was appointed to what was 
then termed the Colmiibia Department, he wrote the 
directory requesting that Douglas might accompany 
him, which request was granted," and young Douglas 
made ready to cross his Alps. 

Here, indeed, was opportunity. Look at it. Nine- 
teen years of age, full of youthful vigor and enthusiasm, 
the friend and companion of the chief factor in com- 
mand upon the Northwest Coast. In such a country, 
at such an age, and under such conditions, we shall see 
in due time how he availed himself of them. 

McLoughlin was determined his protege should en- 
joy every advantage, consistent with his duty to the 
service, which might tend to his advancement. And 
this might best be accomplished, not by confining the 
young man too closely to office and warehouse work, 
or to one particular or permanent thing; but by giving 
him a succession of duties which should finally make 
him proficient in all. 

He was already a good accountant, one of the best 
in the service, and thoroughly familiar with the 
French Canadian idiom. It was now for him to be- 
come familiar, in all its minutest detail, with the pon- 
derous and most perfect machinery of the united 
companies. He should know not only the kinds and 
cost of trading goods and fort supplies in London, and 
the expenses of transportation to the distributing post 
on the Columbia, and thence to the several interior 
stations, the kinds, and qualities, and prices of furs; 
the rules of the company in regard to traffic, presents, 
and credit with the natives; the wages and duties of 
the men, and the allowances due them; but he should 
become familiar with the vast country over which his 

^ My very good friend John Tod, New Caledonia, MS. , 46-7, wlio told ine 
all he knew, and somewhat more, respecting his former associate and chief, 
brings Douglas to America in or before 1811, at which time he was eight 
years old; and this assertion he backs by the remark, ' Mr Douglas remained 
east of the mountains at Fort Ecla, Athabasca District, for live or six years, ' 
bringing him across the mountains in 1824. 



CONNOLLY'S DAUGHTER. 287 

chief held sovereign sway; he should know its config- 
uration and climate; its mountains, plains, and valleys; 
its forests and prairies; its lakes and rivers; its fruits 
and animals, and plants, and all its possibilities. Most 
of all, he should study well the aborigines, with whom 
his predecessors and superiors had taken so much 
trouble to establish commercial intercourse. Some- 
thing of their languages he should know, that he 
might personally converse with them. Of the bent 
of their minds and passions, their present wants and 
future hopes, their intellectual endowments, and, so far 
as possible, of their several idiosyncrasies, he should 
make careful analysis. 

To this end it was expedient he should spend sev- 
eral seasons in the field; and first of all in New 
Caledonia, then the Siberia of the company, and the 
most distant department of McLoughlin's dominion, 
the north-coast establishments not having 3'et been 
founded. Therefore, instead of taking him at once 
to head -quarters at Astoria, he gave him in charge 
of James Connolly, a jolly Irishman, who with his 
family and twenty-four men crossed the mountains 
from York Factory in the autumn of 1824, Avith 
supplies for New Caledonia. Mr Connolly succeeded 
John Stuart in these parts. 

The young Scot was by no means averse to this 
arrangement; for while studying life under new con- 
ditions, he might study love, which was likewise new 
to him, and exceedingly comforting. James Con- 
nolly had a daughter, a blushing half-breed beauty, 
then some fifteen years of age.^ How should a bold, 
high-spirited, handsome young man but find favor in 
her eyes; how should a warm-hearted, lovely, and 
modest maiden but find favor in his ? Her presence 
sweetened toil ; his presence made smooth to her the 
ruggedest mountain-trail. How many thousands of 

^ These particulars I get from Mr Tod, J\Vw Caledonia, MS., passim, who, 
if his memory proves not treacherous — for lie was very oM when he gave me 
his dictation — may be counted correct, for he was there at the time, and re- 
cited ouly what came under his own observation. 



288 JAMES DOUGLAS 

volumes of unwritten romance are there in the early 
doings upon this western slope ; tales of love as deep 
and true as ever mailed knight carried beneath his 
armor, true tales of daring venture, with mingled 
failure and success, more thrilling, more noble, more 
difficult and self-sacrificing, than any fiction cudgelled 
from prolific brain/ 

John Tod was then at McLeod Lake, having 
crossed the mountains in 1823, and was in charge of 
McLeod Fort for a jDeriod of nine years. Connoll}^ 
and Douglas went first to Fort St James on Stuart 
Lake, and the following year the latter was left lor 
a time in charge of the post. It was here, and at 
this time, that Douglas played his first bloody tragedy 
in which the victim was the murderer of certain of 
Yale's men, young Connolly and Douglas the execu- 
tioners, the latter finishing the performance by be- 
coming prisoner — all of which I have fully given in a 
previous volume.^ The courage and coolness displayed 
in this encounter with the savages brought the young 
man fame and favor, not only among his associates, 
but among the natives themselves. 

Connolly as well as Douglas had much to learn 
about the natives : first of all, that there was as much 
difference in their individual and tribal character as 
is found among the civilized nations of Europe ; and 
next, that environment affected man here as well as 
elsewhere. There was a vast difference between 
mountaineers and the dwellers upon the sea-shore, 
between hunters and diggers, boatmen and horsemen, 
fish-eaters and beast-eaters. It happened on one 
occasion, as Connolly was descending the Columbia 
with eight bateaux, the proud and chivalrous Nez 
Perces gave him a lesson. On reaching the Dalles, 
his boats being lightly manned, he engaged the na- 

* Tod, Neiv Caledonia, MS. , 28-32, gives a graphic picture of what he calls 
Robinson Crusoe life in this region at the time. The skins of elk or other 
animals served as clothes, and their meat for food; or if other sources failed, 
they did not hesitate to sacrifice the dogs that drew their winter sledges. 

° See History Northwest Coast. 



AMONG THE NEZ PERCES. 289 

tivos, for SO much tobacco, to assist him at the pcn-t- 
age. Their work being well and promptly done, they 
hastily came forward in a body for their pay — so 
hastily and in such numbers, in fact, that Connolly 
was frightened, and dropping the promised tobacco 
on the rocks, beat a rapid retreat to his boats. The 
savao-es paused, and cast toward the flying trader a 
look of ineffable disdain. 

"Are white men thieves and murderers that they 
think all others so?" exclaimed the chief, swelling in 
dignity and stature as he spoke. "Go! we scorn 
you, and will not touch your trash ! " 

Saying which, the Nez Perces turned loftily away, 
leaving the tobacco on the rocks. Upon seeing this, 
certain Palouses, fishing in the river near by, did not 
scruple with hot haste to sweep the stones of the 
l)recious weed to the last shred. 

Under such developing environment the course of 
true love ran rapidly and smoothly. There were no 
factious influences at work in form of oppugnant father, 
subtly scheming mother, rival lover, or heavy villain, 
so essential to the orthodox love-story. James Doug- 
las was glad to win the love of Nelia Connolly, and 
she was equally glad to give it him. When he asked 
her to be his wife, she had not the remotest idea of 
declining, nor had her father. So they were counted 
man and wife, and began the half-century of serene 
happiness which followed in the rugged region of 
New Caledonia. AVhen Beaver, freshly bleached by 
St Peter's successor, arrived at Fort Vancouver with 
a church-bound wife, the aboriginal marriage ceremony 
was denounced as devilish, and beside this imniacu- 
late pair all wives there were only concubines, and 
their progeny bastards, with whom it were disgraceful 
to associate. And so for the sake of peace, Douglas, 
among others, was remarried by Beaver in 1837 or 
1838." 

"Roberts, Recollections, MS., 57, says 1839; but in this instance he doea 
not recollect correctly. 

Hist. Brit, Col. 19 



290 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

Near the western limit of New Caledonia in 1826, 
Douglas built a post which he called, in honor of his 
wife's father, Fort Connolly, on Bear Lake, some- 
times called Lake Connolly at the head of a branch 
of Skeena River. 

After several years of this kind of service, many 
incidents of which I have detailed elsewhere, and in 
which persistent fidelity to business and temperate 
conduct toward the natives were ever manifest, 
Douglas was called to Fort Vancouver, where he 
proceeded with his family in 1828, there to render 
his friend and patron the more immediate assistance 
which the increasing requirements of the service 
seemed to demand. There he rose rapidly, and soon 
stood second only to his chief in all the Northwest 
Coast, if not at once in name, yet in power and im- 
portance almost immediately. 

There was an abundance of time and opportunity, 
however, to become proficient in all the minutest de- 
tails of the service, and this not in theory alone but 
in practice. He revised and greatly improved the 
system of accounts which required all the posts of 
the Pacific to make annual returns to Fort Vancouver. 
Several times he took charge of the York Factory 
express, which duty was by no means unaccompanied 
with difficulties and dangers.^ 

In 1830 he was made chief trader, and two years 
after, chief factor.^ Much of his time was now em- 
ployed in selecting sites and superintending the es- 
tablishing of posts. Annual visits of inspection were 

^ ' Sir James used to be one of the clerks who went across with letters. Mr 
Anderson went once ; Dr Tolniie went once, but he went to England to visit 
his country. They used to have a little difficulty with the Indians, but not 
much.' Harvey's Life of McLoughlin, MS., 4. 

^ I take this date from McKialay, Narrative, MS., 8, and Finlayson, Hist. 
V. I., MS., 30, who agree. Anderson, Northwest Coast, MS., 25, says that 
it was in 1835 he was made chief trader. But the time is not at all essential. 
Toimie, Piiget Sound, MS., 2, saw him in 1833, when 'he was second in com- 
mand at Fort Vancouver, where he acted as accountant.' He was now fast 
becoming famous for his geographical and practical knowledge. In Reply 
U. S. to H. B. M. Treaty of Washington, 21, he is pronoimced 'one of the most 
enterprising and inquisitive of men, famous for his intunate acquaintance with 
evei-y crevice on the coast;' a high compliment from such a source. 



A NOBLE DEED. 291 

made to the several stations, both of the interior and 
of the seaboard. In the summer of 1840 he was up 
the coast on important business; in the winter of 
1841-2 he visited Cahfornia, a full and interesting 
account of Avhich is given in his journal. 

There is something sublime in that quality inherent 
in noble natures which cannot overlook a duty, even 
though its performance leads toward death. 

In fording the Nisqually River, while en rotite 
northward m April 1840 to take possession of the 
territory leased from the Russians, and to build Fort 
Tako, Lassertes, leading man of the party under 
Douglas, was swept away and carried some distance 
down the river. Just before reaching a drift of logs 
and debris, under and through which the furious 
water was surging, threatening instant destruction to 
any on whom it might once lay its grasp, he caught 
the end of a fallen tree and held to it as his only hope 
of life. 

Even to those accustomed to dail}^ dangers, and to 
pronjpt unflinching action whenever a comrade needed 
help, the position of Lassertes was so perilous, the 
destruction of whomsoever should attempt his rescue 
so probable, that the bravest of these brave men 
drew back appalled. The air and water were icy 
cold, so that the limbs would be quickly benumbed, 
tending to render eflbrt powerless. Fear fell upon 
the company, Lassertes was growing every moment 
weaker ; he was apparently a doomed man. " The 
contagion weighed upon my own mind," says Doug- 
las, " and I confess with shame that I felt not that 
cheerful alacrity in rushing to the rescue as at other 
times." 

Douglas soon saw that if he did not make the at- 
tempt no one would. It were easy enough to hold 
back, to dally, to seek for means less venturesome than 
such extreme personal peril, that man's life was not 
wortli half as much as his own; no blame could by 
any possibihty ever be attached to lihii; let him go. 



292 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

He could not do it. His nature was not made of 
such stuff. "Even then," he writes in his journal, "I 
could not allow a fellow -creature to perish without an 
effort to save him, while the inactivity of all present 
was an additional incentive to redouble my own exer- 
tions. With a sensation of dread, and almost hope- 
less of success, I pushed my horse by spur and whip 
nearly across the river, sprung into the w^ater, and 
rushed towards the spot where the nearly exhausted 
sufferer was clinging, with his head above water, to 
the end of a tree that had fallen into the river. Upon 
its trunk I dragged myself out on all fours ; and great 
was our mutual joy when I seized him firmly by the 
collar, and with the aid of a canoe that arrived soon 
after, landed him safely on the bank, where a blazing 
fire soon restored warmth to both. And to my latest 
breath may I cherish the remembrance of Lassertes' 
providential rescue from a watery grave, as I could 
never otherwise have enjoyed tranquillity of mind."^ 
Which sentiment, supplementing such an action, to 
me is frao^rant with the hiochest nobleness of soul. 

During the early part of his career he was rigid in 
his obedience to the orders of his superiors, and in 
manifestations of respect toward them; and in later 
years when he began to rule, he demanded the same 
respect and obedience from others.^*^ 



^Douglas' Journal, MS., 4, 5. 

^° As well to afford the plainest insight into the character of this remarka- 
ble man as to clear myself from any possible charge of captious criticism in 
regard to him, I give the following extract from the book of Matthew Macne, 
a personal acquaintance and countryman of Douglas: 

* There is a resident in the country who, in consideration of his past official 
relation to it as first governor of British Columbia, deserves passing notice in 
this place. I refer to Sir James Douglas. This gentleman is completely un- 
known in England, except at the colonial office and to a few directors of the 
Hudson's Bay Companyf But being a local celebrity, the reader may not ob- 
ject to be introduced to so interesting a character. In stature he exceeds six 
feet. His countenance, by its weather-beaten appearance, still tells of many 
years spent in fur-trapping adventure in the wilds of the interior. Intro- 
duced at the age of fifteen or sixteen from the West Indies, the reputed place 
of his birth, into the service of the company, and deprived, during the greater 
part of his life, of the advantages of society, except that of Indians, half-breeds, 
and persons like himself occupying humble situations in the employ of the 
company, every praise is due to him for not being indifferent to mental cul- 



JOINT MANAGEMENT. 293 

Both before and after 1843, Douglas was active in 
choosing a site and estabhshing Fort Victoria. When 
the board of management was organized in order grad- 
uahy to reUeve John McLoughhn of his rule prepara- 
tory to his final discharge, Douglas was a member. 
Before the retirement from the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany's service of McLoughlin in 1845, papers were 
signed by himself and Douglas jointly, showing that 
the latter was gradually coming to the front. These 
were troublous times for McLoughlin, and they were 

ture in those mountain solitudes in which the flower of his manhood was 
passed. The stateliness of his person, of which he always seems proudly con- 
scious, and his natural force of character, suggest the reflection to an observer, 
how vastly more agreeable would have been his address, and powerful the in- 
fluence of his character and abilities, had he enjoyed in early life a liberal edu- 
cation and intercourse with persons of refinement ami culture. De Quincey 
«lescribes the well-kno^vn Dr Parr as the Birmingham Dr Johnson, an expres- 
sion signifying that the former was but an electro-plated imitation of the latter. 
The application of this remark may be left to the reader in reference to the 
pretentious deportment of Sir James. His efforts to appear grand, and even 
august, were ludicrously out of proportion to the insignificant population he 
governed, numbering less than the inhabitants of many a country town in 
England. ^Mien he spoke to any one within the precincts of the government 
house, his Quixotic notions of his office, wliich he evidently thought splentlid, 
prompted him to make choice of the sesquipedalian diction he employed in 
his despatches. The angle of his head, the oflicial tone, the extension of the 
hand, the bland smile which never reached beyond the corners of his mouth, 
all these stiff and artificial arrangements were carefully got up and daily re- 
peated by him, under the delusion that the public imagined him to be natural 
and a perfect lirummell in politeness. His manners always gave one the im- 
pression that to make up for early disadvantages he had religiously adjusted 
his whole bearing to the standard of Lord Chesterfield, and it is neeiUess to 
say how amusiag was the combination of his lordship and this dignified old 
fur-trapper. 

' His attitude toward the officials serving under his government was aus- 
tere and distant. This he had acquired under the sort of military mjime ob- 
served between the officers and servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. I 
have lieard magistrates addressed by him in a jjompous manner tliat no Eng- 
lish gentleman would assume toward his porter. But Sir James solemnly felt 
that the machine of state could only be kept in motion by his delivering com- 
mands, witli head erect, and with that rotund and peremptory utterance which 
at once betrayed and excused vulgarity. He was rarely visible at his desk or 
in the street without being arrayed in semi-military uniform; but the climax 
of his extravagance was probably capped by his being followed perpetually, 
whether taking an airing in the country or going to visit, by an imposing 
orderly, duly armed and in uniform. In so small and practical a to^^^l as 
Victoria, the temptation of the local wits to satirize so preposterous a spectacle 
was irresistible. Petty diplomacy was a passion with Sir James, doubtless 
developed from his youth, in the wheedling mode of transacting business with 
the Indians adopted by the company in tlie interior. He never sent away 
;iny suppliant for governmental favours without holding out some hope, 
Miiich, at the same moment, he in many cases determined to fnistrate A 
lavorite phm of his with any wliom lie thus souglit to keep in good humor 
Mas to exhaust then- patience by expedient and indefinite postponement of 



294 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

the darkest in the memory of Douglas ; for it was 
then he first deemed it his duty to present himself as 
a barrier to the liberal dealings of McLoughlin, and 
a supporter of the more merciless policy of his com- 
pany. When McLoughlin had fairly left Fort Van- 
couver, however, and Douglas was fully installed 
as his successor, he returned to the old and wise 
ways which had been characteristic of Northwest 
Coast management since 1824, which increases the 
suspicion that Douglas was not just then wholly 

the object desired.' If I might be allowed a Yankee's random guess I should 
say that Mr Macfie himself was one of those disappointed oflace-seekers upon 
whom Sir James so unprofitably smiled. 

After Douglas had assumed the duties of governor of Vancouver Island, 
the Americans across the border used to ridicule, not always with the best of 
taste, what they regarded in him as unwarranted pomposity. I herewith 
extract the following from the Olympia Club Co)iversazione, MS., 9-13, which 
though exaggerated to the border of the burlesque, nevertheless contains a 
tincture of truth: 

' Mr Evans — The old governor used to walk the streets of Victoria pre- 
ceded, about as far as from here to that door, by a big Scotchman with a 
drawn sword. You have seen that, haven't you ? 

' Mr Billings — Yes [laughing]. 

' Mr Evans — I have seen that. I saw it the very first time I went to 
Victoria. 

' Mr Billings — It was Lieutenant Bowden, now chief of police. 

' Mr Evans — I went one time into Hiljben & Carswell's bookstore, and 
Douglas and this man came in after me. The next day, about the same time, 
I went to the photograph saloon on a little alley that turns off from Govern- 
ment street, and there he went into the lower story as I went upstairs. I 
made some remark about it, and a man told me that that was always the 
case with the governor when he went out about five or six o'clock. 

' JSIr Billings — That is what Mason tells me. Lieutenant Bowden was the 
head of his body-guard. He was a large man, weighing 21)0 pounds. 

' Mr Evans — I have talked with Douglas when he was governor under the 
appointment of Queen Victoria, and governor by virtue of his being chief 
factor in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company's aifairs. The last time I was 
there, when he was chief factor in charge, was when the Russian officers 
taken from Petropavlovsk had a reception given them. Captain Pease, of the 
revenue cutter Jeff Davis, had a reception, and these officers had a reception. 

' Mr Tarbell — After he was appointed governor under the queen, he had 
a paid servant. This man Bowden was brought out, and Sir James took him 
as his servant; but I never saw him going with a broadsword. 

' Mr Evans — He was a great big fellow, and walked five or six feet ahead 
of him. I have seen it as many as four or five times. He was there walking 
ahead, in uniform. 

' Mr Tarbell — This man came out with Moody, and was detailed from 
that service. He was a servant of Sir James Douglas, after he was governor, 
and after he was knighted. 

' Mr Evans — I was a great admirer of Douglas, and I thought that this was 
a good deal too much humbuggery. So I made fun of it in my way. It was 
remarked that that was the usual way; that the governor never went out 
otherwise. My recollection in regard to the matter is, that when he was 



SUPERSEDES McLOUGHLIN. 295 

true to his most generous instincts, that he was not 
at all grieved to have McLoughlin out of the way 
and himself in his place. I do not say that he acted 
a dishonorable part in the accomplishment of this re- 
sult. Call it legal or commercial honor, and I do not 
tlnnk he did act dishonorably; but on the other hand, 
had their positions been reversed, McLoughlin never 
would have permitted the London directors to frown 
out of office his superior because of actions too noble 
for the digestion of the corporation. Douglas not 
only permitted it, but assisted it, and then gathered 
the spoils. 

With himself high chief, and Peter Skeen Ogden 
second in command, ^^ Douglas not only ably followed 
up the system of farming and general business ar- 
rangements originated and so long successfull}^ prac- 
tised by McLoughlin, but he became suddenly kind 
to the emigrants, and in short benevolently committed 
all those crimes of charity for which McLoughlin had 
been dethroned. 

Routes having been opened to the interior by way 
of Eraser River in 1848, and all being prepared for a 
full transfer of the head depot from the Columbia 

ou duty it was: "Make way for the governor, j)lease." There was much 
ceremony. Douglas himself was the greatest man to stand on dignity you 
ever saw. 

' Mr Tarbell — 0, of course when you went into his office lie wanted you 
to take your hat ofi' the moment you went into the door. 

' Mr Evans — He had a man there with the bagpipes. 

' Mr Billings — Tliat was on the occasion of a reception. 

' Mr Evans — Well, I guess the old man always adhered to that. 

' Mr Swan— It was a national trait; most Scotchmen are fond of the bag- 
jiipes. 

' Mr Evans — I am a great admirer of Douglas. I think he was a great 
statesman, and I think it was an unfortunate thing that they supplanted him 
at the time they did. ' 

The simple fact of the matter is, that Governor Douglas bad a servant who 
sometimes accompanied liij master, armed, and he may upon occasion have 
exhibited his weapon to open the way through a crowd. Victoria during the 
Hush times was filled with a rough element, not too much in love with rigor- 
ous rule. Akhough punctilious to what Americans might call a fault, I am 
very sure that he possessed too nmch sound sense ever to liave played the 
bulibon, or to have made himself ridiculous in the eyes of intelligent, fair- 
mmded men. 

'' Says Jesse Applegate, Vieivs of Or&jon HiMnrtj, MS., 1.3: ' Visiting Fort 
Vancouver annually for supplies, I there met Mr Ogden in 1845. He was 
then secoml to Mr Douglas in comnjand.' 



296 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

iRiver to Vancouver Island, in 1849 Douglas removed 
with his family to Victoria. ^'^ In 1859 he retired from 
the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and dis- 
posed of his entire interest in that concern. ^^ 

We shall see in the succeeding chapters of this 
volume how James Douglas behaved as governor of 
Vancouver Island, and governor of British Colum- 
bia, which latter position he held until 1864, when 
he made a visit to Europe, and how he conducted 
himself in the many trying positions in which he was 
placed during a long and eventful public service. In 
1859 he was created C. B., and knighted in 1863. 
He died at Victoria the 2d of August 1877, at the 
age of seventy-four years. 

The world unites in according the highest praise to 
Douo'las as well as to McLoug^hlin. It is the histo- 
rian's duty, however, to inquire further, and note in 
the persons brought before him the distinguishing 
characteristics which make every individual to differ 
from every other individual. Perhaps we may reach 
the inner temple of the Douglas tabernacle the more 
effectually by placing him beside the man he most re- 
sembles, and then marking the difference. 

The lives of both were essentially material. Pos- 
sessing high mental and spiritual capabilities, they 
were without moral companionship or intellectual 
food; yet their intellects, like their bodies, seemed 
healthful, fresh, and vigorous. Their minds were 
fashioned, to a great extent, by the same early pre- 
cepts and the same commercial training. Then later 
there were the same interests, ambitions, and disci- 
pline, the same fort life, forest travel, and primitive 
domination, which for a score or two of years were 

^^ McKinlay, Narrative, MS., 8, states in his bungling waj^ that this move 
was made ' in 1847, upon the retirement of Governor Blanshard, who had 
been appointed from England, and whose office expired on account of the 
transference of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company by the Brit- 
icih government.' 

^■^ Deposition of James Douglas on behalf of the Hudson s Bay Company, 
II. B. Co. Claims, 49. 



TWO MAGNIFICENT MEN. 297 

' their constant environment, and entered largel}^ into 
the composition of their character. We can scarcely 
conceive the powerful influence of the iron rule of a 
commercial corporation on the plastic mind of youth, 
which fashioning power is increased tenfold in this 
instance by its isolation and absolutism. More than 
intuition, tradition, and early education all combined, 
the Hudson's Bay Company made its servants. The 
very first thing for a novice to do on entering the 
service was to creep into the ever-ready mould, and 
the quicker and more effectually he fitted himself to 
it, the more useful and successful he became.^* 

Standing apart, both of these men present a dis- 
tinguished front; both are lavishly praised by their 
contemporaries. I need not repeat here what has 
been said of McLoughlin. Burnett, once governor of 
Oregon, and one competent to judge dispassionately, 
pronounces Douglas "a man of irreproachable char- 
acter, ... of very superior intelligence, and a finished 
Christian gentleman;" and further: "In his position 
(jf governor of British Columbia, he was censured by 
]\Ir John Nugent of California, as I must think, with- 
out sufficient cause. Errors of judgment Governor 
Douglas ma}^ have committed, as almost any man 
would have done, at times, in his trying position ; but 
he must have radically changed since I knew him, if 
he knowingly acted improperly." ^^ Grover of Oregon 

^* 'I was sorry to hear of Douglas' death,' says the garrulous ohl Oregon 
spitfire, Daniel Waldo, Critiques, MS., passim. ' I thought a heap of him. He 
was a man horn to command men — a martial follow. He never gave an evasive 
answer . . . McLoughliu and Douglas were a good deal alike. The doctor would 
flatter you a little; Douglas would not. I do not know but Douglas was just 
as liberal. He trusted everybody just the same as the doctor did, after the 
doctor went out.' One of the most intelligent and fair-minded of Oregon's 
pioneers, Early Days, MS., 2, thus writes: 'I recollect very distinctly the 
difference in our personal intercourse with Governor McLoughlin, who was 
then the chief factor, and Sir James Douglas; he was tlien Mr Douglas, and 
second in command at Vancouver. The latter was a devoted believer in Vic- 
toria's right to all she could maintain, wliile the other rose above that. Doug- 
las would do wliat a civil gentleman was compelled to do towards assisting 
tlie poor emigrants, and nothing more. The cue was cold, and showed by his 
manner that he did not wish the Americans to come here, while the other 
was warm, hearty, and friendly.' 

'^BurneU's I?c'colkctio>,s, MS., i. 94-5, 273-4, 298, 301-3. 



298 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

says he was very judicious in settling difficulties with 
the American miners in 1858; that on one occasion, 
when a little war was liable to be stirred up in regard 
to rents, licenses, and water rights, he proceeded to the 
mines in person, and made public speeches which in- 
duced that rough element to settle their affairs peace- 
ably/« 

The author of a pamphlet published at Victoria 
in 1858, and who seems to me somewhat hyper- 
critical, remarks : " So far, his acts, though tardy, 
have been judicious and liberal, considering circuui- 
stances and the many difficulties he has had to con- 
tend with."^^ 

Another writes: "The long service of Sir James 
Douglas to the Hudson's Bay Company, his intimate 
acquaintance with the various tribes of natives, and 
his knowledge of the requirements for developing the 
resources of this the most important colony of Eng- 
land in the Pacific, rendered him at that epoch 
eminently qualified to fulfil the duties of governor of 
our Northwest American possessions. I have no ob- 
J3ct in bepraising him other than a desire to record 
my humble sense of his eminent merits. But such I 
know to be the verdict of all unbiassed men who had 
the advantage of living under his wise and able ad- 
ministration."^^ 

These are stronger testimonials even than those of 
countrymen and partisans, of which I have many. 

"He performed the duty of governor of the two col- 
onies," says one, "with exceeding prudence and great 
success." ^^ " He made himself popular by contributing 
to the general good feeling existing among the set- 
tlers," remarks another.^*^ He "worked his way 
gradually up to the highest rank by perseverance, 
sobriety of conduct, and earnest application to busi- 
es Grovers Puhlic Life, MS., 65-6. 

^'' WmUliH'itons Eraser Mines, 36. 

18 Poole s Queen Charlotte Island, 66-7. 

^^ Andej-son's Northwest Const, MS., 62. 

2* Good's British Columbia, 1. 



. PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 299 

ness."^^ Malcolm McLeod testifies : "He was an offi- 
cer eminent for his skill, energy, and daring, and his 
compeers ranked high in those qualities, for the ser- 
vice then was one essentially militant, and extremely 
perilous.""^ 

Says Mr Cridger^ " Governor Douglas treated the 
Indians with the affection of a father. This coupled 
with his justice and firmness gave him unbounded 
influence w4th them. When they came from the 
north in such numbers as to cause serious apprehen- 
sion, he achieved by his personal authority what 
under another might have cost blood, and induced 
them to return. At the time of the influx of gold- 
miners in 1858, when some ten thousand men were 
encamped in Victoria, whose population at that time 
might be some three hundred souls, he conferred with 
them as a father and a friend; met and counselled 
them on the eve of their various expeditions; and on 
one occasion, when they were being misled, caused a 
letter to be printed and circulated among them, signed 
M. F. — miner's friend — with the happiest results." 
More were superfluous. 

In personal appearance Douglas was little less 
peculiar than McLoughlin. Both were striking, grand ; 
anywhere in the world, in an American forest or a 
London thoroughftire, in a fur-trading fort or in a 
legislative hall, either would have attracted notice as 
sometliing out of and above the ordinary man. 

Six feet and more in height,^* but so admirably 
proportioned that one would not imagine him so tall 
until one stood beside him; erect in his carriage, 
measured in his movements, but natural and graceful 
withal, Douglas had not his like m all the Northwest. 

^^Finlaysons Hist. V. I., MS., 30. 

^'- McDonald's Peace River, 25. 

^•^ V/iaracteristir.s of James IJotirjlas, MS., 3-5. 

^^Applegate, Vieir.s, Or. Hitt., M.S., 1.3, say. s seven feet seven inches; Imt 
this was evidently a lapsi/x Ihi'/ine. Many have phicecl liis height at six feet 
six or seven inches, hut Finlayaou, Letters, MS., places it at six feet. 



300 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

Toward the end of his Hfe his long face seemed to 
grow longer, his large features and high forehead to 
assume yet more massive proportions, and the always 
firm and earnest purpose which his eyes and mouth 
presented, to deepen into seriousness akin to melan- 
choly. 

McLoughlin's was a very handsome face, full and 
well proportioned, with exquisite features, eyes, nose, 
and mouth not too large, the whole exceedingly pleas- 
ing, fascinating, denoting no great powers either of in- 
tellect or intelligence, but with paramount integrity 
of purpose and will enough to enforce it. 

It is an exceedingly delicate task to press a closer 
analysis in this instance; and yet I see paljDable 
differences in these chiefs so singularly alike. 

And first, and most salient, their predisposition. 
McLoue^hlin was one to be loved; Douolas one to be 
respected. Throughout Lis whole career, McLoughlin 
displayed a broad benevolence, an artless consideration 
for his fellow-man of whatsoever creed, color, or nation- 
ality. This generous temper was from a native spring 
which poured forth purest kindness as the bird its 
song, because it could not help it."^ Douglas was kind 
and just; but his benevolence was not always untinc- 
tured by policy, nor his sympathy by selfish interest. 
Fort life was in many respects like that of a feudal 

''■^ How boundless must be the human kindness of a refined nature which 
undergoes trial like the following without ever suspecting it to be a trial! 
Speaking of the wife of McLoughlin, the widow of McKay who was lost on 
the l^ouquin, Mrs Wilson, Oregon Slrtclies, MS., 19-21, says: 'Though his 
wife was a half-breed of the Ojibway nation, coarse, bent, fat, and flabby, he 
treated her like a princess. In public and in private he was as loyal to her 
as if she had been a daughter of Queen Victoria . . . He would suffer no indig- 
nity or slight to her. His fine handsome form beside the uncorseted figure of 
the old Indian woman presented a strange contrast, as she waddled beside him 
like a being of another species. His gallantry to her knew no bound. On 
state occasions, straight as an arrow and magnificently apparelled, he would 
stand like a splendid statue, while this female aboriginal rolled out before 
him in plain clothes and no figure whatever.' In a country where legal mar- 
riage was not the rule, he was thrice married to his wife, if we may believe 
BohpHs' Bee, MS., 66, once 'at Fort William by a Mr McKenzie, and after- 
ward by Mr Douglas ' in his capacity of justice of the peace, 'at Vancouver, 
and again by Archbishop Blanchet. ' 



COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS. 301- 

coiirt. Both these factors were strict discipHnarians,'-^ 
to which they had been trained from youth, and with- 
out which they could not have held their position. 
Before those who looked up to them as superior 
Ijeings, they were the embodiment of a commercial 
polity, of commercial probity, of commercial success; 
to which business policy the individual must surrender 
himself wholly: body, family, and life itself. Both 
j)ossessed great powers in this and other directions, 
but the authority of Douglas was of sterner stuff 
than tliat of McLoughlm. Both were men of prac- 
tical sagacity, possessing minds of penetrating insight, 
but while one reached conclusions quickly, as if by 
intuition, the other was slower, and pondered well 
before opening his mouth. 

Douglas was the stronger ; McLoughlin tlie purer. 
McLoughlin was weakened by his good qualities; 
Douglas was strengthened by his bad ones. Sin 
sometimes breeds unhappiness; so do noble actions. 
Far more misery has been engendered in the breast 
of middle-aged respectability by benevolent acts than 
in the breast of villany by vicious acts. Intemperate 
generosity and injudicious trustfulness drove Mc- 
Loughlin into unhappy old age. Douglas can boast 
no unhappy old age. 

Douglas was possessed of a cold, proud, formal 
egoism, wholly apart from the warm and generous 
sympathies of McLoughlin. His sluggish impulses 
were in the right direction, but they must all be 
made to play within the hard, passionless limits of 
conventionalism and aristocratic tradition. 

McLoughlin was in temperament Gaelic; he was 

2*" Both the doctor and Douglas,' says Roberts, Recollertiom, MS., 05, 
' were discipliuariaiis, and their success was largely owing to that. I've often 
heen amused to see how courteous Douglas could be to the rougliest i^ioneer, 
and even force outward symbols of respect from me.i who had probably 
shown as much to no one Ijef ore . . . The captains often had to resort to the 
doctor or Douglas; the latter was much the firmer.' I cannot agree with 
what I find written in Comptons Forts and Fort Life, MS., 2, where Mc- 
Loughlin is mentioned as one whose ' name will go down from generation to 
generation, when Sir James Douglas will be lost.' McLoughlin's name will 
always live; at the same time, that of James Douglas will never die. 



302 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

lively, social, hospitable. He could be diplomatic, 
but not deceitful; hence his diplomacy often fell to 
the ground. Douglas was hard, lethargic; more re- 
served and haughty, less charitable, more unbending, 
presenting a moral outline of stony rigidity; one who 
thought much of himself, which the other seemed 
never to do. Their constant association made them 
in a marked degree conformable in character, to the 
improvement of one of them at least. Though con- 
forming in the main to the rules of his commercial 
order, McLoughlin's life was plainly one of impulse 
and instinctive action. He would do no wrong be- 
cause his company commanded it. The ideal of obli- 
gation was outlined in his mind as distinctly as was 
Mt Hood before his physical vision. 

McLoughlin loved what was genial, noble, honest; 
Douglas loved what was imposing, successful, honest. 
The former more than the latter was confined to the 
humdrum duties of a prosaic life, and yet we find in 
the factor of Fort Vancouver far more of sentiment, 
of warm, tender, all-enfolding sympathy, than in his 
more stiff and stolid subordinate and successor. 

Douglas venerated the institutions under which he 
was born, the conventionalities under which he lived, 
and thence proceeding, soon learned to venerate him- 
self, which important figure he never for a moment 
lost sight of Without knowing it, the comings and 
goings of McLoughlin were directed by a spirit of 
magnanimous disinterestedness. 

That one could drop early instilled traditions and 
adopt another faith, as McLoughlin is reported to 
have done, shows at least independence of thought, 
and, to some extent, freedom from sectarian bondage. 
Douglas never changed his religion; nor could he, any 
more than the leopard could change liis skin. De- 
prive the one of his church ceremonies, and his reli- 
gion was gone ; whereas the practical piety of the other 
shone out from the depths of the wilderness through 
every act, and a thousand miles away from ritual, 



JOHN McLOUtaiLIX. 303 

book, or priest. The loyalty of Douglas was to the 
full letter and spirit of the law ; McLouo-hliii lived in 
the loyalty of his divine manhood, and though obedi- 
ent to the law, was yet above it. 

The truth is, if I must confess it, McLoughlin's 
piety, like Tolmie's temperance, was a garment for 
occasions, and not to be worn if it interfered with 
more jDractical matters. 

For example, while prayers were being solemnly 
read on Sunday in the great hall of Fort Vancouver, 
business was sometimes going on as briskly as ever. 
An expedition was perhaps on the tapis, when, in the 
open space without, saddle-horses were being lassoed 
from a band of two or three hundred squealing, gal- 
loping animals, the thundering of whoso hoofs, no 
doubt, added solemnity to the responses. So Toimig, 
though professing strictly total abstinence before his 
sons, being a physician, took the liberty of prescribing 
for himself liberal potations when in other company. 
And yet ]\IcLoughlin was pious, and Tolniie temperate. 
Douglas was of the strictest sect a pharisee, abound- 
ing in meaningless forms more hollow than he him- 
self imagined forms could be. Forms to him were 
indeed not forms, but actualities; shadows Avere more 
substantial things than the unseen substance that cast 
the shadow. 

McLoughlin was of quick perceptions. Glancing 
over the accounts of an adventure, he could tell you 
the profit or loss and the cause of either before 
another had fairly begun his calculations. Douglas, 
on the other hand, was slow, methodical, exceedingly 
careful, and he never would be hurried. His work 
would be done, and to have it well and ]iroperly done 
he was willing to make any sacrifice of personal com- 
forts or pleasure, but he nmst have time. He pon- 
dered a matter long, but once resolved, he smote with 
vigor and effect. 

Both were men of dignity and lofty bearing ; but 
the awe McLoughhn sought to inspire was for the 



304 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

great corporation represented in him, while the pom- 
posity of Douglas sprang rather from personal pride. 
McLoughlin was not only the wealth, the property, 
and profit of the place, but he was the law, the mor- 
ality, and the religion of a vast area occupied by 
every shade of savagism and civilization, which, with- 
out proper and enforced example, must quickly re- 
solve into chaos. Douglas worshipped his God and 
his king, and endeavored to do his duty; but yet he 
always reserved a full share of adulation for himself. 

In bent of mind, in carriage, conduct, and the man- 
agement of affairs, Douglas copied closely from his 
master, McLoughlin; so closely, indeed, so honestly 
and faithfully, that the imitation almost equalled the 
original. Although they differed in many respects; 
althousfh Douglas was cold and calculating, even 
as McLoughlin was warm-hearted and ben-evolent; 
althouLch the virtues of Dougflas were manufactured, 
while those of McLoughlin were spontaneous; al- 
thouofh Douolas was civilization's courtier, while Mc- 
Loughlin was nature's nobleman — yet they were much 
alike; so alike, in fact, that there could have been no 
fitter successor to McLoughlin than Douglas. Both 
were able, honest men, both obedient to the call of 
the higher powers; yet while the highest power that 
Douglas recognized in the affairs of business was the 
voice of his superior, McLoughlin used to listen to 
the voice of humanity, and recognize something nobler 
in this universe than obedience, even though the edicts 
were thundered by the mighty men of Fenchurch 
street. 

After some forty years of service, the only reproach 
McLoughlin's directors could cast upon him was that 
of too much kindness to settlers. The company 
wanted no interlopers ; neither did McLoughlin want 
them, and he used every effort to discourage their 
coming. But once there, his humanity would not let 
them die of cold and hunger. 

See the poor emigrants as they come straggling 



POLICY, POLICY, POLICY. 305 

down the river, staggering under fatigue and starva- 
tion ! They are not pleasing specimens of the outside 
busy world, they are neither educated, intelligent, nor 
gentlemanly ; they are coarse, uncouth, dirty, liaggard, 
ragged. They are ground-tillers, who frighten away 
the game ; they are aliens, who would usurp the terri- 
tory. They are improvident, foolish, and had much 
better have remained at home. They bring discom- 
fort, sow discord among the natives, and are exceed- 
ingly unprofitable every way. But they are men; 
sutferino;, sorrowinsf men. And this is enough for 
McLoughlin. He sends out bateaux, gathers them 
in, brings them within the palisades, feeds, clothes, 
and comforts them. Warmed into manhood under 
his benignant sj^mpathy, they yet lack every means 
of support — seed, supplies, and implements of agricul- 
ture. But McLoughlin's company docs not desire 
the soil disturbed; neither does McLoughlin. Yet 
he credits them, these strangers; and when his direc- 
tors complain, he tells them to charge it all to him. 
Perish factorships and fur corporations, he cannot see 
helpless human beings starve. I tell you this Cana- 
dian Scotchman was the very Christ of Northwest oc- 
cupation ! 

Now, Douglas likewise was humane; to the children 
of the forest he was as a father. But Douglas was 
an exceedingly just man. . He was kind to the settler, 
to the miner, to the poor of every caste; but he 
was scrupulously alive to duty. No earthly power 
could make McLoughlin disloyal to his humanity; 
no earthly power could make Douglas disloyal to his 
company. 

"My fiither always liked him," says Mrs Harvey.-^ 
"Toward the last something happened; I do not 
know what. I could not learn what it was. He 
was against my father in something, and my father 
was very angry about it." 

^' Life of McLowjhlin, MS., 3 
IIisT. Erit. Col. 20 



306 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

We know what it was. In the unpleasant discus- 
sion between McLoughlin and the London directors 
relative to assisting emigrants, Douglas took sides 
against his old friend and benefactor, and so made 
capital with the company. Douglas himself soon be- 
came ashamed of his conduct, and repented ; and after 
McLoughlin's retirement, he pursued the righteous 
policy of his predecessor. But this was not until 
after the London directors had become ashamed of 
their conduct — for there was really no profit in it, it 
being impossible to prevent immigration by any such 
means. After this exhibition of his heart to his patron 
and superior, McLoughlin saw in Douglas what he 
had never seen before, and never after that were they 
the same to each other. 

In all this Douglas made no mistake. The com- 
pany remembered and rewarded him. He was a 
model man for the company. McLoughlin's mistakes 
were all errors arising from the nobleness of his nature. 
Some men are too coldly calculating ever to make 
mistakes. Obstinate and rigid as he was in his high, 
aristocratic policy, Douglas was ever free from any 
unworthiness ; he lacked the sweet weaknesses of hu- 
manity, whence unworthiness is engendered. To be 
a little faulty is lamentable; but to be absolutely free 
from fault may be more lamentable. For virtue, 
concrete and absolute, is unnatural, and to be un- 
natural is crime against nature. Douglas would 
be a party to no virtuous disloyalty: no, not for 
his soul's sake. If less than his superior in innate 
nobleness, he would be the greater in outward ap- 
pointment. 

Until selfish interest interfered, Douglas cherished 
for McLoughlin a filial affection. But within the 
breast of the younger man there did not dwell suffi- 
cient kindly feeling or generous sympathy to permit 
a sacrifice of self-advancement. His path of honor 
always lay in the direction of his company's interests. 
Douglas could satisfy the requirements of a merciless 



COLD A2?D HARD. 307 

corporation better than McLoughlin; for McLougli- 
lin's duty was always on the side of charity, while 
tlie charity of Douglas was made subservient to 
duty. 

In guile McLoughlin was an infant; in everything 
covert or cunning he was unsophisticated. He had 
spent his life, or at least the greater part of it, among 
responsible men, whose words were single, whose 
assurances signified something. They were business 
associates, business bretliren, strict in their dealings, 
slower to promise than to perform. Thus the cold, 
keen world and the darkest side of humanity had 
remained hidden from him. He had not found it in 
the forest or in the camp. 

He had never met many bad men, except among 
classes so far below him that their wickedness excited 
his sorrow rather than his anger. The natives were 
thieves, liars, and murderers, some of them ; yet even 
these it was the policy of his company to trust, be- 
cause in giving them credit they derived profit. 
Surely there could not be among white Christians 
greater villany than among these scalping heathen. 
Alas! it was forced upon him to know before he 
died that there were worse men in the world than 
savages; that there were, even among those who 
claimed to be upon a better footing with the Al- 
mighty than were some others, men more cunning, 
more treacherous and vindictive, greater ingrates and 
scoundrels, more diabolically wicked, than the aver- 
age aboriginal. 

The incoming settlers to the Northwest Coast were 
of a class totally different from any McLoughlin had 
hitherto seen. They w^cre well beaten and battered 
men of the world. Many of them were conscientious 
and honest ; most of them were pecuniaril}- irrespon- 
sible ; too many were unreliable in their word ; some 
few were downright dishonest. Few Hotspurs, few 
Mercutios, were found in the ranks of the Hudson's 
Bay adventurers; all here were under inexorable 



308 JAMES DOUGLAS. 

commercial rule; one must look away upon the moun- 
tains, among the camps of the free-traders for Mer- 
cutios and Hotspurs. 

It is scarcely to be wondered at; it is exactly what 
we should expect, when the single-hearted ruler of 
Fort Vancouver, now well past middle age, was brought 
into jarring relationship with such an element as this, 
that by some of them he should be badly treated, 
sadly imposed upon ; that after the most disinterested 
kindness he should be cheated, vilified ; such being the 
way some have in cancelling obligations. Douglas 
might boast fewer enemies than McLoughlin, because 
he had granted fewer favors. 

During the last years of his life, McLoughlin some- 
times showed signs of impatience, of which he was 
afterward heartily ashamed. When much excited, he 
would rub his stomach, swear hotly for a moment, and 
in the same breath beo- God's foro-iveness. It was 
laughable, except to one who knew the man and the 
occasion. Yet with all his injuries he did not become 
a misanthropic Timon. In the singleness and noble 
purity of his soul, he could not but believe that most 
men were honest; he could not believe that men are 
as bad. as they are, and he never regretted having 
befriended the unfortunate. To the end he was gentle 
and tolerant, thouofh his sensitiveness to ino-ratitude 
and wrong was often manifest. 

Now, if in order to detect some slight flaws in 
the grandest and most faultless character of British 
Columbian history, it has been necessary to view it 
by the light of one of the grandest and most faultless 
characters of any history, it only shows our more just 
and lively appreciation of the man. To the proper- 
minded writer of history, it is indeed refreshing to 
find the central figure in the early affairs of a colony 
or commonwealth so worthy of the proud pedestal on 
which it is his greatest pleasure to place him, Xeither 
Douglas nor McLoughlin ever did a base or ignoble 
act ; and side by side, even as in life they were so often 



♦ 



LET BOTH BE PRAISED. 309 

found, tlieir names shall forever stand unsullied in the 
annals of the great Northwest.^ 

2^ The life of James Douglas is in truth the history of British Columbia 
from its beginning, through all its early changes and vicissitudes, down to 
about 1S75. I have in this chapter only outlined the salient characteristics 
of this remarkable man, for a fuller knowledge of whom I must refer the 
reader to the other parts of this volume, scarcely a page of which is not af- 
fected by his influence. My authorities for this chapter are: Dowjlas' Privnie 
Papers, Istser., MS., passim; Doughs' Journal, MS., passim; Dowjlas' Pri- 
vate PajKrs, 2d ser., MS., passim; Harvey's Life of John McLoughim, MS., 36 
et seq.; McLouijldins Private Papers, ser. i., ii., iii., MS., passim; Fin- 
lai/son's Hist. V. /., MS., 30-3, 67; Anderson's Northwest Coast, MS., 14, 
25, 59-63; Tolmie's Ptajet Sound, MS., 2; McKinlai/'s Narrative, MS., 
6; Good's British Columhia, MS., 1; Grover's Puhlic Life, MS., 65, 6G; Olympia 
CluhConvs., MS., 9-13; Roberts' Rec, MS., 57, 65; Burnett's Rec, MS., i. 94-5, 
273-^; McLeod's Peace River, 25; Will-es' U. S. Expl Ex., iv. 351-9; Address 
and JTemorials iipon the Retirement of Sir James Douglas, passim; Reply, 
U. S. to H. B. M. Treaty of Washington, 74; Waddlngtons Prater Mines, 35-6; 
//. B. Co. Ev., H. B. Co. Clainis, 49; Tod's New Caledonia, MS., 4G-7; 
Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 279; Cridge's Characteristics of James Dougla.f, MS., 
3-5; Waldo's Critiques, MS., 13-14; 27th Cong. 3d Sess., H. Rept. Com. No. 
31, i. 56, 57; Or. Pub. Rec., MS., 4; Compton's Forts and Fort Life, MS., 2; 
Bacon's Mer. Life, MS., 20-1; Moss' Pictures, jSlS., 20; Pettigrove's Or., 
MS., 1-0; Saxton's Or. Ter., MS., 131^1; Minto's Early Days, MS., 2; 
Wilso?is Or. Sketches, MS., 19-21. The biographical notices given by the 
public press in different .parts of the world upon the occasion of his death, 
of which there are too many even to make mention, are remarkable not only 
for the information they do not contain, but for the remote distance from 
truth of the statements given. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE ISLAifD UNDER DOUGLAS. 

1S51-1859. 

Reconciliation of Antagonistic Elements — Thk Terms of Settlement 
Unjust and Impolitic — The Inaugukation of Government Prema- 
ture — No Government but the Best Government — Continuance of 
the Domination of the Monopoly^The Puget Sound Company — 
Provisions of the Crown Grant in Regard to Government — Expi 

RATION OF the FiRST FiVE-YEAR TeRM AND RENEWAL — ThE OfFICES OF 

Governor and Magistrate at First United — Illegality of Delegat- 
ing Imperial Authority to a Colonial Governor in Council — 
Organization of a House of Assembly — Farcical Performances op 
the First Legislators — The Wild Beasts and Savages Survive the 
Result— Touching Display op Family Affection in the Manipula- 
tion of Government Affairs— Douglas Compelled to Relinquish 
Some Portion of his Honors and Emoluments. 

With the inauguration of James Douglas as colo- 
nial governor, two of the oppugnant elements which 
during the past two years had ruffled the usual serenity 
of the Island were harmonized. The management 
of Hudson's Bay Company affairs and the rulership of 
the colonial government being vested in one person, 
factor-in-chief of the commercial monopoly and rep- 
resentative of the queen's authority, it only remained 
for him to reconcile to himself differences between 
the company and the crown according to policy or 
conscience. The third element, the colonizers, was, 
fortunately for the peace of the Island, insignificant 
at the first, and was now since the inauguration of the 
new governor rapidly diminishing. If there was too 
little governing south of the 49th parallel, north of 
that line there was now altogether too much. Upon 

(310 J 



TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT. 311 

the devoted head of the poor settler, surrounded by 
jealous savages and under the most arbitrary'- and 
insane restrictions that ever emanated from a free 
government favoring free colonization, rested the incubi 
of luonarchy and monopoly. Not alone must the 
pound per acre for wild, and thus far worthless, land, 
stolen from the savages, be paid the imperial govern- 
ment, but to the representative of the government as 
the representative of a crushing monopoly must the 
settler go for every necessity, every article of comfort 
or form of requirement, paying therefor often two or 
three hundred per cent on London cost; to this same 
hydra-head he must carry his produce, and receive for 
it whatever the company might please to pay. AVho 
among nineteenth-century Englishmen would leave his 
liappy English home with all its hallowed memories, 
and take up his residence in this far-away north-west 
wilderness only to breathe so stifling an atmosphere 
as this? Nobody. And so Douglas traded skins and 
ruled, though he presently had few subjects except 
his own hired servants. 

He had now, I say, only to reconcile to his policy 
or conscience any infelicities arising between imperial 
and commercial interests, but I do not say that Doug- 
las was disposed to deal unfairly in regard to either 
trust. He was wise enough to see that self-interest 
lay in equitable adjustments. He was wise enough 
to see that henceforth throughout this domain com- 
mercial power must diminish and imperial power 
advance. The combined sovereignty was not beyond 
his capabilities, yet both were not essential to his 
permanent advancement. He could live upon the 
emoluments of his chief factorship, or upon his salary 
as governor. At present the two combined were bet- 
ter than either singly ; he would be true, so far as in 
him lay, to the interests of both; but rend}^ at any 
time to relinquish either. When relinquisliment be- 
came irresistible, he would let go the lesser and hold to 
the greater ; which would be permanently the greater. 



312 THE ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 

and which the less, his discriminating judgment and 
clear foresight had already told him. 

Between 1851 and 1856, in the absence of settlers, 
the duties of imperial rule were light. The monop- 
ol J, having everything its own way, managed matters, 
in the main, to suit its own interests. Whatever was 
to be done for England on these shores, that Douglas 
did well and faithfully. The tranquillity of the north- 
ern fur-fields was somewhat disturbed by the Indian 
hostilities south of the border, but Douglas was too 
well versed in aboriginal traffic to permit open rupture 
with the natives so long as he could have them to 
himself, and away from the demoralizing iniluence of 
strangers. 

During tliis time the Hudson's Bay Company, to 
all intents and purposes, enjoyed monopoly the same 
as if there had been no colony and no colonial govern- 
ment. There were no merchants on the Island, no 
manufacturers, no miners, other than the adventurers 
of England, for none could compete with them. There 
was no money on the Island ; all business was barter. 
There was no intercourse with the mother country or 
with the world, except through the medium of the 
monopoly. 

Even in agriculture, in practical manipulation, at 
least, there was also monopoly — grasping, overshadow- 
ing, merciless monopoly. With nearest and best lands 
secured, and every resource at command, whatever was 
required for home consumption and more, whatever 
could be profitably exported to Russian America, the 
Hawaiian Islands, or elsewhere, the Puget Sound Com- 
pany could furnish at prices below what would be cost 
to the distant and isolated settler. 

In granting the Island to the fur company for col- 
onization, it had been stipulated by the crown, among 
other conditions, that at the end of the fifth year from 
1849, unless certain progress in settlement was made, 
the charter should revert to the imperial government. 



OVERREACHING. 313 

And now, says Finlayson, owing to the hesitation of 
colonists to come forward, "the company began to get 
anxious." They began to see that there was such a 
thing as overreaching themselves in continuing too 
far the exclusive system. They were in no haste to 
colonize, but they could not hope always to hold the 
balance of power if there was no settlement. Hence 
they released some of their reserved lands, influenced 
some of their servants to become settlers, and made 
fresh efforts to induce families from abroad to make 
the Island their home. To give further color to tlieir 
proceedings, a number of the officers, Douglas and 
Work, Tod, Tolmie, and Finlayson, bought wild lands, 
paying therefor the one pound per acre. The Puget 
Sound Company appointed bailiffs, who, besides a 
salary of sixty pounds a year, were given one quarter 
of the farm profits, with liberty to draw goods from 
the Hudson's Bay Company stores at cost and ex- 
penses chargeable to the farm account.^ 

It must not be supposed that such of the officers 
and servants of the Hudson's Bay Company as had 
become landholders and settlers on Vancouver Island 
shared with the London management the desire for a 

1 ' The company object to bringing the goods of settlers into the island, 
but not to taking goods away; the inference being that they object to any- 
thing like competition.' C'oox>er, in Iiou-'^f of Com. EepL, H. B. Co., 1857, 204. 
The Reverend Staines 'became much dissatisfied with things, with Mr Doug- 
las and his administration as governor of the colony, otliers joined with him, 
leading to a division among the settlers. And now a portion of the Hudson's 
Bay Company traders also became dissatisfied with the course of Mr Douglas 
and his otticers. They complained that the governor could not do justice to 
both parties; that the chief factorship should be separate and distinct from 
the governorship; that tlie goods for fur-trading purposes were transferred 
to the Puget Sound Company's colony at cost and charges, whereas they were 
worth seventy-five per cent on the prime cost, for cash, in the oi)eu market. 
This was the complaint of the company against the representatives of the 
colony, and they wished for a separation.' FinhtjiHons V. I., MS., 53^. 
'There are some queer stories afloat respecting these times; such as emi- 
grants brought out and imprisoned on their arrival for not choosing to work; 
of others peremptorily forbidden to locate on certain lands, or the company 
would not protect them; of respectable emigrants coming over to obtain the 
necessary information and settle and leaving in disgust; of worknien flogged 
for trirtes; of a miner having his skull cracked with a blacksmith's hammer 
by a foreman of the company at Nanaimo, and receiving a compensation in 
land or money to make him hold his tongue; of agreements subscribed on the 
Island, promising never to speak ill of the company, etc. Some of these 
stories have been probably exaggerated.' M'addiwjtons Fraser Alineti, 34. 



3U TKE ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 

continuance of fur-trading rule. The settlers' petition 
to parliament, made in the autumn of 1853, to which 
I have before alluded, asking that the company's grant 
should not be renewed at the expiration of the five 
years' term ; that the Island should be taken under the 
immediate management of the imperial government; 
that a governor and subordinate functionaries should 
be ajipointed and paid by the home government ; that 
courts of justice should be establishecl; that the execu- 
tive council should be separate from the legislative; 
that a majority of the legislative council should be 
elective for four years, by such of the colonists as held 
not less than two hundred acres of land, and the house 
of assembly to consist of nine members, to be selected 
every three years; that the elective franchise, now 
enjoyed only by persons holding twenty acres of land, 
should be extended so as to include persons occupying 
houses or paying rent to the amount of ten pounds 
per annum, or owning farming lands to the value of 
ten pounds, or city lands to the value of twenty 
pounds, and that the price of public land should be 
reduced to ten shillings an acre, payable in five annual 
instalments, with interest at the rate of five per cent 
per annum — the petition to parliament, I say, asking 
these things, was signed not only by Staines, Grant, 
Muir, Blenkhorn, Wier, Langford, Atkinson, Hall^ 
Sangster, Yates, Hawkins, Wilson, Russell, Downie, 
Perry, McKay, Humplireys, and others, directly op- 
posed to the Hudson's Bay Company in almost all 
their mterests, but by the highest company officials 
themselves, by every member of the governor's coun- 
cil, even by Tod, Cooper, Finlayson, Tolmie, Work, 
Kennedy— all, in short, except the governor, his fam- 
ily and more immediate retainers. 

No disloyalty to the company was attached to this 
proceeding; it was only an expression of opinion that 
at the expiration of the present five years the interests 
of the government and the company should be wholly 
distinct. They saw that Douglas, in his present 



EXriRATIOX OF THE TERM. 315 

anomalous position, was doing justice neither to him- 
self, his compan}^, nor his government, and the quicker 
these several interests were segregated, the better for 
all concerned.^ 

The truth is, these shrewd Scotchmen saw nothing 
for themselves in the present arrangement. They 
could manage the affairs of tlie company as well, or 
better, untrammelled by imperial forms. It was well 
enough for Douglas, with his eight hundred pounds a 
year salary as governor, but the others were now 
land-owners and settlers as well as fur-traders, and 
these new interests were rapidly assuming proportions 
paramount to the older ones. Governing could never 
be jirofitable to them unless England was willing to 
pay something for the satisfaction of numbering among 
her colonial possessions the Island of Vancouver. If 
the government of the colony was to be borne 
entirely by the colonists, they had better be without 
it, for the natural wealth of the country they could 
gather themselves. 

Hitherto under the grant of 13th of January 1849, 
giving absolute lordship and proprietorship of the 
Island, its lands and minerals, at a yearly rental of 
seven sliillings, with the privilege on the part of the 
crown of resuming possession at the expiration of five 
years by reimbursing the fur company its colonial ex- 
penses, little had been done in the M^ay of gov^erning. 
There was, indeed, no special need of a government; 
in the absence of settlers, the old relations between 
Indians and Europeans were the best, and these could 
be maintained by the fur-company alone; the imperial 
parliament was powerless to rule American savages. 
They might exterminate, but they could not govern. 

As the expiration of the term of five years covered 
by the grant drew nigh, the fur-traders saw that unless 
they would lose their colonization charter something 
must be done. A series of plausible excuses might 

'^ This document with all the signatures is too lengthy to give here; it may 
be fouud ill full in the Ohj)ni>ia Columbian, Oct. 29, 1853. 



316 THE ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 

be framed, which, if backed by sufficient of the right 
kind of influence when placed before the government, 
would be all-sufficient. First, they had carried out 
the requirements of the charter; therefore it was no 
fault of theirs that colonization had thus far failed; 
and finally, it was the fault of the government in 
making such absurd conditions. These weighty ex- 
cuses at length prevailed, and in 1854 the Hudson's 
Bay Company succeeded in obtaining from the Brit- 
ish government another agreement granting them 
Vancouver Island for purposes of colonization for 
another period of five years. 

We have seen how Douglas began his colonial reign 
as chief of the provisional council appointed by Blan- 
shard just before taking his departure, James Cooper 
and John Tod being the other members of the council. 
After having been made governor in the autumn of 
1851, seeing no immediate necessity for any change, 
Douglas continued to administer imperial authority 
by the aid of a council, adding only the name of 
Roderick Finlayson to the former number.^ 

Thus government affairs drifted on till 1854, when 
ended the five years' term of the grant,'^ after which 
the name of John Work was substituted for that of 
James Cooper as member of council. 

Nor was it difficult for the company to obtain an 
extension. They pointed to their peaceful reign, to 
the absence of crime on the Island; they expressed 
their willingness — nay, their earnest desire — to adopt 
any means the government might suggest for the 
extension of colonization. And so the grant was 
renewed for another five years; and the Hudson's Bay 

^Cooper, Mar. Matters, MS., 1-28, says that the avowed object to be ac- 
complished by the formation of this covmcil was to hold in check the auto- 
cratic power of the Hudson's Bay Company. If this were the real instead 
of the pretended purpose — and, as I take it, it was real witli Blanshard, and 
pretended by some others — it was manifestly no less puerile in its conception 
than farcical in execution. 

* 'In 1853,' says Deans, Settlement V. I., MS., 14, 'Mr Tod, Mr Finlayson, 
and Captain Cooper formed the council.' So Mr Finlayson, Hist. V. I., MS., 
56, ' was appointed to the council which stood in 1852-3. ' 



I 



RENEWAL OF GRANT. 317 

Company, with Douglas chief factor and governor, 
continued to rule Vancouver Island until 1859. 

Soon after this arrangement was made, however, 
the question began to arise in the mind of British 
statesmen conversant with the principles of colonial 
law, whether the crown, in a settlement of English- 
men, could legally convey authority to make laws to 
any council or legislature not elected wholly or in 
part by the settlers themselves. 

Upon the founding of the colony of Vancouver 
Island, Governor Blanshard in his commission and in- 
structions was directed to summon general assemblies 
of freeholders, qualified by their ownership of twenty 
acres of land, with whose advice and the advice of his 
council, to consist of seven members, he was to make 
laws for the good government of the people. 

Governor Blanshard's commission contained another 
clause, introduced for the purpose of permitting the 
governor, if possible, to form a legislature which 
should provide for the immediate necessities of the 
colony before an assembly could be convened. This 
clause empowered the governor to make laws with 
the aid of his council alone. The governor, at his 
discretion, should divide the Island into electoral dis- 
tricts, fix the number of representatives, and exercise 
the usual power of proroguing or dissolving the as- 
sembly at pleasure. The legislature thus constituted 
should have power to make laws, levy taxes, and regu- 
late the affairs of the Island, always subject to the 
approval of the crown. It was the intention of the 
imperial government in these instructions, no doubt, 
that an assembly should be formed as soon as possible.^ 

We have seen how, by the high price of land, the 
presence of an overshadowing monopoly, and the at- 

* ' I am convinced as well by the general tenor of the documents themselves 
as by tlie information which I have been able to obtain of the intention of her 
majesty's government in framing them, that it was tlien contemplated that 
such assemblies should be summoned as soon as it should be practicable to do 
so.' Labouc/iire's Despatch to Gov. Douijlcs, 2Sth February 185G. 



318 THE ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 

tractions over the border, colonization had been re- 
tarded. We have seen the difficulty, the impossibility, 
of summoning an assembly of freeholders, chiefly for 
the reason that there were no freeholders to summon. 
Or if there were landholders, being mostly servants of 
the Hudson's Bay Campany, it was not regarded as 
exactly the thing to organize a popular tribunal solely 
from the ranks of the monopoly. 

Hence it was that Governor Douglas, for some time 
after Blanshard had resigned, deemed it advisable to 
act on the power apparently given him to manage 
matters with the advice of his council only, and to 
pass such laws as the exigencies of the time required. 
And this action on the part of Governor Douglas met 
the entire approval of the imperial government. 

But at length the time had come when the true 
spirit of English law must be given free play, even in 
this far away and still almost tenantless isle. If it 
were true that the crown could not legally confide the 
law-making power to a governor in council, then the 
clause in his commission on which the 'governor relied 
was unwarranted, and his acts under it invalid. 

At all events, it appeared best that steps should be 
taken to establish a legislature for Vancouver Island in 
accordance with the spirit of the English law. Hence 
on the 28th of February 1856, Labouchere, secretary 
of state, writes Governor Douglas, instructing him 
without delay to call together an assembly according 
to the terms of his commission and instructions. 

By the ninth clause of his instructions, the governor 
had power to fix the number of representatives, and 
if he should deem it essential, to divide the Island into 
districts, with polling-places in each. To the assembly 
thus summoned, the governor, with the advice of his 
council, misfht susfo^est such measures as seemed to 
him requisite. Among the first steps to be taken by 
the assembly, the secretary suggested that the acts 
of the government already performed without the 
authority of an assembly should be made valid. 



A LEGISLATURE. 319 

The maintenance of a constitution on the model of 
larger colonies, with a house of representatives and a 
council, Labouchore goes on to say, in so small a com- 
munity might be inexpedient for the present, and per- 
haps for years a smaller body might satisfactorily 
perform the requisite functions of government. Such 
a body, however, could be organized only by enactment 
of a legislature authorized by the commission, which 
would be an assembly acting with the governor and 
his council. 

That is to say, a legislature might be formed unaer 
the provisions of the commission, and when thus legally 
constituted, it might, for convenience or for purposes 
of economy, surrender its powers into the hands of 
a single power as had been done successfully else- 
where. 

"I leave it to you to consider," continues Labou- 
chere, "with the advice of the local authorities, the 
number and proper qualiiications of the members of 
sucli a single council; but in the event of your deter- 
mining to introduce the elective principle into it, a 
certain proportion, not less than one third, sliould be 
nominated by the crown. The power of assenting to 
or negativing, or suspending for the assent of the 
crown, the measures passed by such a council should 
be distinctly reserved to yourself. And it is very 
essential that a constitutional law of this description 
should contain a proviso reserving the initiation of all 
money votes to the local government. An additional 
reason in favor of the course which I now prescribe, 
namely, that of calling together the assembly, and then 
if the legislature so created think proper, establishing 
a simpler form of government, is to be found in the 
circumstance that the relations of the Hudson's Bay 
Company with the crown must necessarily undergo 
revision before or in the year 1859. The position and 
future government of Vancouver's Island will then 
unavoidably pass under review, and if any difficulties 
should be experienced in carrying into execution any 



320 THE ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 

present instructions, a convenient opportunity will be 
afforded for reconsidering them." 

To these instructions Governor Douglas, on the 
22d of May, thus replies: " It is, I confess, not with- 
out feelings of dismay that I contemplate the nature 
and amount of labor and responsibility which will be 
imposed upon me in the process of carrying out the 
instructions conveyed in your despatch. Possessing 
a very slender knowledge of legislation, without legal 
advice or intelligent assistance of any kind, I approach 
the subject with diffidence, feeling, however, all the 
encouragement which the kindly promised assistance 
and support of her majesty's government is calculated 
to inspire." 

While averse to universal suffrage, or to making 
pojiulation the basis of representation, the governor 
deemed it expedient to extend the franchise to all 
persons holding in the colony a fixed property stake, 
that class being more numerous than the other, and 
having equal interest in the permanent welfare of the 
colony. He therefore asked permission of the im- 
perial government to extend the franchise so as to 
give the representation a wider basis, but was told in 
reply that it was thought best, for the present, not to 
alter the commission, but to convoke the first assembly 
in strict accordance with its provisions, and then bring 
before that body a measure for extending the suflrage. 
The council at this time consisted of John Tod, senior 
member, James Cooper, Roderick Finlayson, and John 
Grant. Calling a meeting pf the council, the governor 
laid before it the secretary's instructions concerning 
the summoning of assemblies of the freeholders, and on 
the 4th and 9th of June the same were duly consid- 
ered. The result was a proclamation issued the 16th 
of June 1856, dividing the Island into four electoral- 
districts, apportioning the number of representatives, 
and appointing returning officers for each.*' 

^The four districts were as follows: Victoria to be represented by three 
members, Andrew Muir returning officer; Esquimalt and Metchosin, two mem- 
bers, H. W. 0. Margary returning officer; Nanaimo, one member, C. E. Stuart 



ELECTION 321- 

Seven members were to be returnea, wnose qualifi- 
cation was the ownership of freehold estate to the 
amount of three hundred pounds or more/ The prop- 
erty qualification of voters remained as fixed by 
tlie governor's commission, twenty acres or more of 
freehold land. " There will be a difficulty in finding 
properly qualified representatives," writes Douglas to 
Labouchere, " and I fear that our early attempts at 
legislation will make a sorry figure; though at all 
events they will have the effect you contemplate of 
removing all doubts as to the validity of our local en- 
actments." Following the example of British Guiana, 
the agents of the absentee freehold proprietors were 
allowed to vote in place of their principal.^ Writs 
calling a general assembly of freeholders for the pur- 
pose of electing members to serve in the general assem- 
bly were made returnable the 4th of August following. 
Elections were duly held according to notice ; and in 
three of the districts the electors were so few in number 
that the returns were little more than mere nomina- 
tions. In Victoria district, however, there were no less 
than five rival candidates, who fiercely contested for the 
honor of membership of the first house of assembly of 
Vancouver Island. And thus were chosen "seven fit 
and discreet persons," into whose hands the destiny of 
the nation was for the time being confided.^ 

returning officer; Soke, one member, John Muir, junior, returning officer. Vic- 
toria district comprised the country east of the Victoria Amn and of a line 
running in a northerly direction toward Saanich, so as to include Peer's Farm; 
Esquimalt district, the country east of Victoria Arm, and cast of Tedder Bay, 
including McKcnzie's and the "farms ■west of Colquot's River; Soke district 
from Pedder Bay to Otter Head, the headland beyond Soke; Nanaimo dis- 
trict simply the town. The returning officer of each district was at the same 
time directed to give notice when and where the poll should betaken. 

' ' To have fixed upon a higher standard of qualification wouhl have dis- 
qualified all the present representatives, leaving no disposable persons to re- 
place them, and it appeared to me impolitic as well as unconstitutional to dis- 
pense altogether with the property qualification.' Letter from UoiKjlas to 
Laboiir/itre, dated 22d July 1S5G. 

^ ' The governor laid down as a principle that the custom or practice ob- 
served in England should, as far as possible, be adopted in this colony in 
framing the rules for elections.' Miniiti' 0/ Council, 9th June 185G. 

"Their names were John Muir, Soke district; Thomas Skinner and J. S. 
Helmcken, Esquinialt district; John F. Kennedy, Nanaimo district; J. D.. 
Pemberton, James Yates, and E. E. Langford, Victoria district. 
lIisT. Bkit. Col. 21 



322 THE ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 

The august body convened the 12th of August, 
and the first house of assembly was declared open for 
business. ''The afl'air passed off quietly," wrote the 
governor, with a naivete which, in a less unsophisti- 
cated statesman, might be regarded as sarcasm, "and 
did not appear to excite much interest among the 
lower orders." ^° Then followed the governor's address, 
which, though a kind of congratulatory wail, was de- 
livered in a dignified and impressive manner. ^^ 

^® "VNTio the lower orders upon the Island at this time were, I am at a loss to 
know, unless we shoi^ld seek them amongst the oily Indians, or Parson Staines' 
pigs. 

11 Herewith I give the governor's address in full: 

* Gentlemen of tlie Legislative Cmincil and of the House of Assembly : I con- 
gratulate you most sincerely on this memorable occasion; the meeting in full 
convention of the general assembly of Vancouver's Island, an event fraught 
with consequences of the utmost importance to its present and future inhabi- 
tants, and remarkable as the first instance of representative institutions being 
granted in the infancy of a British colony. The history and actual position 
of this colony are marked by many other remarkable circumstances. Called 
into existence by an act of the supreme government, immediately after the 
discovery of gold in California, it has maintained an arduous and incessant 
struggle with the disorganizing effects on labor of that discovery. Remote 
from every other British settlement, mth its commerce trammelled, and met 
by restrictive duties on every side, its trade and re3ources remain undevel- 
oped. Self-supi)orting, and defraying all the expenses of its own government, 
it presents a striking contrast to every other colony in the British empire, aad 
like the nati^'e pines of its storm-beaten promontories, it has acquired a slow 
but hardy growth. Its . future progress must, under providence, in a greet 
measure depend on the intelligence, industry, and enterprise of its inhabi- 
tants, and upon the legislative wisdom of this assembly. 

' Gentlemen, I look forward with confidence and satisfaction to the aid and 
support which the executive power may in the future expect to derive from 
your local experience and knowledge of the wishes of the people and the 
wants of the country. I feel assured that, as public men holding a solemn 
and momentous trust, you will, as a governing principle, strive ■with one accord 
to promote the true and substantial interests of the country; and that our 
legislative labors will be distinguished alike by prudence, temperance, and 
justice to all classes. 

' Gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that her majesty's government 
continues to express the most lively interest in the progress and welfare of 
this colony. Negotiations are now pending with the government of the 
United States, which may probably terminate in an extension of the reci- 
procity treaty to Vancouver Island. To show the commercial advantages con- 
nected with that treaty, I will just mention that an impost duty of thirty 
pounds is levied on every one hundred pounds' worth of British jjroduce which 
is now sent to San Francisco, or to any other American port; or in other 
words, the British proprietor pays as a tax to the United States nearly the 
value of every third cargo of fish, timber, or coal which he sends to any 
American port. The reciprocity treaty utterly abolishes those fearful im- 
posts, and establishes a system of free-trade in the produce of British col- 
onies. The effects of that measure in developing the trade and natural 
resources cf the colony can, therefore, be hardly overestimated. The coal, the 
timber, and the productive fisheries of Vancouver's Island will assume a 



I 



GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. 3^ 

The first legislature would scarcely bo called a wise 
or imposing body of men, or the representatives of a 
powerful state. Exclude the rocks, trees, and sav- 

value before unknown ; while every branch of trade will start into activity, 
and become the means of pouring wealth into the country. So unbounded is 
the reliance which I place in the enterprise and intelligence possessed by the 
people of this colony, and in the advantages of their geographical position, 
that with equal rights and a fair field 1 think they may enter into a successful 
competition with the people of any other countrj'. The extension of the 
reciprocity treaty to this Island once gained, the interests of the colony 
will become inseparably connected with the principles of free-trade, a system 
which I think it will be sound policy on our pare to encourage. 

• Gentlemen, the colony has been again visited this year by a large party 
of northern Indians, and their presence has excited in our minds a not un- 
reasonable degree of alarm. Thi-ough the blessing of God they have been kept 
from committing acts of open violence, and been quiet and orderly in their 
deportment; yet the presence of large bodies of armed savages, who have 
never felt the restraining iniluences of moral and religious training, and who 
are accustomed to follow the impulses of their own evil natures more than the 
dictation of reason or justice, gives rise to a feeling of insecurity wliich must 
exist as long as the colony remains without military protection. Her JSIajes- 
ty's government, ever alive to the dangers which beset the colony, have 
arranged with the lords commissioners of the admiralty, that the President 
frigate should be sent to Vancouver's Island; and the measure will, I have no 
doubt, be carried into effect without delay. I shall nevertheless continue to 
conciliate the good-will of the native Indian tribes by treating them with jus- 
tice and forbearance, and by rigidly protecting their civil and agrarian rights; 
many cogent reasons of humanity and sound policy recommend that course to 
our attention; and I shall, therefore, rely upon your support in carrying such 
measures into etiect. We know, from our outi experience, that the friend- 
ship of the natives is at all times useful, while it is no less certain that their 
enmity may become more disastrous than any other calamity to which the 
colony is directly exposed. 

' Gentlemen of the house of assembly, according to constitutional usage, 
with you must originate all money bills ; it is therefore your special pro\'ince 
to consider the ways and means of defraying the ordinary expenses of the 
government, either by levying a customs duty on imports, or by a system of 
du-ect taxation. The poverty of the country and the limited means of a popu- 
lation struggling against the pressure of numberless privations, must neces- 
sai-ily restrict the amount of taxation; it should, therefore, be our constant 
study to regulate the public expenditure according to the means of the coun- 
try, and to live strictly within our income. The common error of rumiing into 
speculative improvements entailing debts upon the colony, for a very uncertain 
advantage, should be carefully avoided. The demands upon the public i-evenue 
\\all, at present, chiefly arise fi'om the improvement of the internal communica- 
tions of the coimtry, and providing for the education of the young, the 
erection of places for public worship, the defence of the country, and the 
admmi.^tration of justice. 

' Gentlemen, I feel in aU its force the responsibility now resting upon 
us. The interests and well being of thousands yet unborn may be affected by 
our decisions, and they will reverence or condemn our acts according as they 
are found to influence, for good or for evil, the events of the future. 

' Gentlemen of the house of the assembly, I have appointed Chit." justice 
Cameron to administer the oath of allegiance to the members of your house, 
and to receive your declarations of qualification; you may then proceed to 
choose a speaker, and to ai^point the oflicers necessary for the proper conduct 
of the business of the house. James Douglas, Governor.' 



324 THE ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 

ages, the wild beasts and fishes from their constituency, 
and there was httle left.^^ Indeed, that the forest 
Y/as not called upon to furnish Solons was almost a 
wonder, for the fiat had gone forth that there should 
be a colony and a government, and search the Island 
through, not more than six or seven men might be 
found eligible for the important trust, and these must 
be returned by one or two voters each. There were 
then upon the Island but about two hundred and fifty 
white men, although there had been more. Most of 
these were servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
and few of them were land-owners. 

J. S. Helmcken was chosen speaker, and took his 
seat smiling audibly. Before the heavy work of the 
day was fairly undertaken, the machinery of govern- 
ment was brought to a stand by reason of questions 
being raised as to the property qualifications of t^^^o 
of the members, and the validity of the election of 
one, thus leaving an efiScient force of but three mem- 
bers besides the speaker. 

Again the governor found himself in a dilemma. 
To one of the immortal seven, objections had been 
raised purely from party motives. Possibly these 
might be quieted or overruled. "In the territorial 
government of the United States," writes Douglas to 
Labouchere the 20th of August, "the practice in 
such cases is foj the governor to grant certificates of 
qualification to a majority of the members, who then 
proceed to constitute the house; but I am not certain 
if such a course would be in harmony with English 
law; nevertheless, if the house should appeal to me 
on the subject, I will have recourse to that expedient." 

But hapjDily the governor was saved from pursuing 
so questionable a course. After adjourning from day 

^^ ' There was a farcical affair in the shape of a legislature house of assem- 
bly, wh;:.re tAVO or three voters returned as many members to the house. As 
there was no revenue to expend and no power conceded to the house, their 
legislative efforts could only be and were abortive. This assembly died a 
natural death in 1859.' Coopers 3Iar. Matters, MS., 12. See also Cooper's 
testimony before the select committee. House Com. Sept., 192. 



LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS. 325 

to day, meanwhile practising to the best of their 
unenhghtened abihty the poUtical gyrations and genu- 
flections most effective on such occasions, party differ- 
ences were adjusted in so far as to admit of the 
forming of a committee, which proceeded at once to 
inquire into the quahiication of members elect. The 
return of Mr Langford was declared void, on the 
ground of his not possessing sufficient proi3crty, and 
J. W. McKay was elected in his place. 

By the 1 3th of November, after numberless vicissi- 
tudes, the house declared itself ready for serious busi- 
ness; and there was nothing of more sombre concern 
than the ways and means of money-raising; so that 
at first the financial capabilities of the colony and the 
detail of the expenditures occupied attention. On 
the 18th of December a bill passed the assembly and 
was carried to the council, granting the sum of one 
hundred and thirtj^ pounds for the payment of the 
servants and the defraying of the ordinary expenses 
of the house. "I am nT)W preparing a bill for im- 
posing a custom duty on imports as a means of meet- 
ing the ordinary expenses of the government," writes 
Douglas on the 9th of January 1857 ; "but the subject 
nmst be approached with caution as there is a very 
general feeling in both council and assembly against 
taxation under any form, and I am prepared to en- 
counter much clamour and opposition in carrying so 
unpopular a measure through the house." 

A French dancing-master in a Parisian salon could 
not have been more painfully polite than were these 
blustering Scotch and English fur-hunters in this 
western wilderness. However far short of its im- 
perial model the incipient government might fall in 
points of learning and intelligence, dignity and cour- 
tesy should not be wanting. Scarcely a message is 
transmitted between the son-in-law speaker and the 
father-in-law governor unless accompanied by fulsome 
flattery. 

The governor scndo "Mr Speaker and Gentlemen 



326 THE ISLAXD UNDER DOUGLAS. 

of the House of Assembly" a dry document on finance ; 
on receipt of which it is resolved first of all, "that the 
thanks of this house be presented to his excellency 
the governor for the communication." With more 
insignificant detail the governor "highly appreciates the 
complimentary message," whereupon the legislators 
immediately resolve "that the speaker be requested 
to thank his excellency the governor on behalf of this 
house for the information so courteously and promptly 
afforded," which, as usual, constituted the burden of 
the communication. But the climax of public 
affection is reached when, on the 10th of December 
1856, on the receipt from the father-in-law of an 
abstract of the income and expenditure of the colony, 
the son-in-law "on the part of the house of assembly 
begs respectfully to acknowledge the receipt this day 
of a gracious communication and an abstract of the 
income and expenditure for the year 1856 from his 
excellency the governor, and to inform his excellency 
that the house of assembly unanimously resolved that 
the thanks of this house be presented to his excellency 
the governor for the same." Surely this man's merri- 
ment was only exceeded by his family affection. Nor 
is it at all difficult to perceive in this connection who 
was the government. ^^ 

They were, forsooth, a happy family, these fur- 
huntino^ leo-islators. The Dousrlas was all in all, 
lord paramount, dominator, imperial viceroy, and fur- 
traders' factor-in-chief. Work, Finlayson, and Tod, 
chief factor, chief trader, and ancient pensioner, 
respectively, of the Hudson's Bay Company, com- 
prised both secret council and house of lords. The 
seven wise men, representing the seven districts 
of the Island as a house of assembly, were in their 
several vocations almost wholly of the monopoly. 
Helmcken was staff doctor of the company; Pem- 

'^^ Return to an address of the Honorable the House of Commons, dated 25th 
June 1857, for Cojnes of Extracts of any Despatches that have been received by 
her Majesfy^s Secretary of State for the colonies, on the subject of the establish- 
ment of a llejjresentative Assembly at Vancouver's Island. 



END OF SECOND TERM. 327 

berton, surveyor and ardent attache; McKay, clerk of 
the company; Muir, former servant of the company, 
and father of the sheriff; Skinner, acfent of the Pug-et 
Sound Agricultural Company; Kennedy, a retired 
officer of the company appointed by the governor and 
council to represent the district of Nanaimo ; Yates, 
by the grace of the company, merchant. D. Cameron, 
brother-in-law of the governor, was chief-justice, and 
A. C. Anderson, retired chief trader, was collector of 
customs. 

After the performance of their important duties, 
which appear principally to have been provision for 
the payment of their own expenses, the first house of 
assembly lapsed into oblivion. ^^ 

Thus the government of Vancouver Island con- 
tinued until 1859, at which time terminated the sec- 
ond five years of Hudson's Bay Company colonial 
domination. During his term of office, four distinct 
and often antagonistic interests looked to Douglas as 
their head; namely, the Hudson's Bay Company's fur- 
trade, the colony of Yaucouver Island, the Puget 
Sound Agricultural Company, and the Nanaimo Coal 
Company. 

It was impossible for him to do justice to each of 
these several trusts. No man can serve two masters. 
No honorable man will permit himself to serve as a 
manager of a corporation, or of a commonwealth, 
where his fullest capabilities are not permitted free 
play in the performance of his duty to shareliolder or 
citizen. During this entire term it was obviously im- 
possible for Douglas to throw his entire strength and 
influence upon the side of every one of liis several 
oppugnant trusts, and he should have long since re- 
signed, or rather he should never have accepted more 
than one of them at once. But he loved the power, 

'* 'Tliis took place in July, two years ago,' s.ays Alfred WadJiiigton, 
MTiting iu 1858, 'and nobody can tell me, nor do I l>clieve it is knoAoi, when 
the assembly is to be renewed, unless it l)e at the will of tlie governor.' Thia 
assembly died a natural death in lo59. C oo^ier's Mar. MaUtra, MS., 12. 



328 THE ISLAND UNDER DOUGLAS. 

and he loved the emoluments. For a very great man 
or a very ambitious man, the whole of this north- 
west wilderness, and all that it contained, was at best 
a small sovereignty, which, to cut into parts, some 
of them wellnigh hollow, were an exceedingly petty 
business. 

But the time had now come when he must relin- 
quish his hold on some of his several trusts. He must 
cease either to be factor or governor. ^^ Thus the case 
was put before him by his company. It was not dif- 
ficult to determine which power was in the ascendant. 
Therefore Douglas chose to abandon traffic, and hold 
to rulership. The result was, that in this year of 
1859 the management of the several associations was 
given up, and the governorship retained. Douglas 
abandoned forever all interest in the Hudson's Bay 
Company, and Y/ork, Tolmie, and McTavish became 
the new board of management. With the retirement 
of McLoughlin and Douglas the glory of the corpora- 
tion departed from the Pacific. ^^ 

^^ ' The fur-trade was tlie company's commercial operations proper; the 
Puget Soiind Company was distinct altogether, although some of the Hudson's 
Bay Companj''s officers belonged to this company likewise. The coal company 
was carried on by shareholders of the company, in which the officers here had 
nothing to do. These four interests were under the superintendence of Mr 
Douglas uutil 1859, when he had to sever his connection with the Hudson's 
Bay Company altogether. He had his choice to remain with the company or 
become governor of the colony.' FinJaysons V. I. and N. W. C, MS., 55. 

^•^ily authorities for this chapter are: Douglas' Private Papers, MS., 2d 
ser. 34-50; Cooper's Mar. Matters, MS., 12, 13; Finlaysons Hist. V. I., MS., 
4G-7, 5G; Tod's New Caledonia, MS., 22. Let it be obserqed that every mem- 
ber of the first council here gives in his evidence, all being in manuscript. I 
may further mention the San Bernardino Guardian, Jan. 11, 18G8; Brit. Colo- ■ 
nist, April 4, 1877; Victoria Standard, Aug. 8, 1877; Waddmgton's Fraser 
Mines, 35; Ellis, in House Commons Kept., H. B. Co., 1857, 334; Cooper, in Id., 
19G; Finlay's Direct., i., 389, 90; Cornwallis' Keiv El Dorado, 33; and Mc- 
Donald, in Brit. Col. Sketches, MS., 36. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

1853-1859. 

The Qtjestiojts of Vaxcottver Island Government and Justice in Home 
Political Circles — There is no Money in it — And Therefore Thet 
May Safely be Left to Themselves — Blanshard, the First Gov- 
ernor. Likewise the First Judge— Douglas as a Man-tamer and 
Measurer of Retribution — The 'Thetis' and the ' Tkincomalee ' 
Expeditions — Bloodless Victory over the Covtechins — The Bright- 
est Virtue of James Douglas — David Cameron :M\de Chief-justice— 
His Antecedents, Duties, and End — His Successors, Needham and 
Begbie — Revenue — Land and Liquor — The Mighty Power of Rum. 

Naturally among the first questions arising in the 
minds of office-holders, but more especially of office- 
seekers, when it became certain that the grant of 
Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company 
would be consummated, were, How is the new colony 
to be governed? How is justice to be administered 
there? We have seen the first question answered in 
the persons of Mr Blanshard and Mr Douglas. The 
other required more delay and further legislation; for, 
as matters now stood, the law required offisnders on 
the British Pacific coast to be sent to Canada for 
trial. This would no longer do, now that Vancouver 
Island was a colony. Therefore, when in the house 
of commons on the 27th of March 1849, Mr Glad- 
stone asked the under-secretary for the colonies if 
it was the intention of the government to introduce 
during that session any bill for altering any existing 
statute touching Vancouver Island, the answer was, 
None, except to establish there courts of judicature. 
The bill was accordingly introduced on the 25th of 

(329 J 



330 THE JUDICIARY. 

June, It was supported by Earl Grej-^, and became 
a law. 

In supporting in the house of lords the bill for 
the administration of justice on Vancouver Island, 
Earl Grey remarked that it was the object of the im- 
perial government to reserve judicial power to the 
local legislature of the Island, with right of appeal 
from the courts so constituted to the privy council. 
No political power was given by the grant to the 
Hudson's Bay Company. The governor might be 
selected by the company, but their choice must be 
approved by the crown. It was not proposed to enter 
immediately upon legislation and taxation, but the 
governor might summon a legislative council when- 
ever there were sufficient colonists to make it advisa- 
ble. As an excuse for the grant in the first instance, 
he said that it was necessary that the rights of the 
crown should be defined at once, that regular authority 
should be planted there to prevent irregular occupa- 
tion, and, if the government were to do all this, it 
would prove expensive. The result was that quite a 
little economical delay happened before English geld 
was spilt for Vancouver Island government or justice.^ 

Justice under English law was first administered 
on Vancouver Island by Richard Blanshard, the first 
governor. As there were no colonial funds, no means 
of paying a recorder or other administrator of justice, 
the governor was obliged to act in that capacity.^ 
And so under Douglas, until legislators could be con- 
vened, who should provide the means of payment for 
judges, and sheriffs, and the usual paraphernalia of 

^HansanVs Parliamentary Debates, 3d ser. ciii. 1371; cvi. 1063-82. 

2 ' So that you were governor and justice ? ' asked Roebuck; ' had you con- 
stables ? ' ' Yes, ' replied Blanshard, * when I wanted a constable I swore one. ' 
House Commons Kept., H. B. Co., 1857, 290. 'They had no courts for trial 
west of the mountains. Governor Blanshard was the first to institute courts 
here. He himself used to adjudicate in cases. In one case he came into col- 
lision with the late 8ir James Douglas in a matter in connection with ship- 
ping, and in which the power of Mr Douglas was called in question by Mr 
Blansharl. The latter stated that Mr Douglas in the case had no authority 
to act. Mr Douglas was summoned before Mr Blanshard. A:id this was the 
iirst time that English law wa3 felt hero.' Flnlaysons V. I., ilS., 100. 



TKE VOLTIGEURS 331 

law courts, justice must be administered by the gov- 
ernor in council. And in the place of sheriffs and 
standing armies, a mounted police, called voltigeurs, 
was organized from among the settlers and servants 
of the company.^ 

Up to 1857 there was but one constable upon the 
Island. There was no military force, if we except the 
Toltigeurs, so that settlers scattered about the country 
Avere at the mercy of the savages. Yet outrages were 
extremely rare, thanks to the uniformly wi^e and hu- 
mane management of the Hudson's Bay Company in 
this regard. Still, an occasional display of superior 
power was not without wholesome effect. In the only 
two instances of trouble occurring prior to this time, 
the natives had been induced voluntarily to give up 
offenders to punishment by the appearance of men-of- 
w^ar, on one occasion by the Thetis, and on another by 
the Trincomalee. 

In December 1852, one of the company's shepherds, 
Peter Brown, at Christmas Hill, wus killed by two 
natives, one of whom fled to Cowichin, and the other 
to Nanaimo. The settlers were greatly alarmed, 
fearful lest the terrible Cowichins should annihilate 
them, which, indeed, they might easily do. Kuper, 
captain of the war-vessel Thetis, lying at Esquimalt, 
volunteered assistance, which Douglas gratefully ac- 
cepted. A force sufHcient for the purpose was taken 
from the TJietis, and placed on board the company's 
vessel. Recovery, which was then, the 4th January 
1853, towed by the steamer round into Haro Strait, 
Douglas being in command, 

AnchorinGf oft" the Saanich villa'j;e, Douoflas went on 
shore and began to talk to the heathen. The offend- 
ers were not liere, but the governor took this occasion 
to impart a healthful lesson. He told those present 

' Tlie settlers were nmch annoyed Ly cattle-thieves, which was in fact the 
origin of this organization. Cows were shot withiix call of home. 'One 
firmer lost thirty-six head of cattle in three years. ' Duanx'' SnUlt'iinid V. /., 
MS., 15. 



332 THE JUDICIARY. 

of Queen Victoria and the British parHament, of law 
and love, gunpowder and perdition. He assured them 
if white men injured them they should have redress, 
and if they injured white men they should be punished. 
Then, with his blue-jackets and marines, he proceeded 
to Cowichin, arriving thereon the morning of the 6th, 
and tlirowing the village into quite a flutter of ex- 
citement. 

The usual demand was then made, that the mur- 
derer should be delivered up. The chief asked time 
to consider, which, as Douglas desired to avoid blood- 
shed, was granted. A meeting was appointed for 
final conference next day on shore, the savages being 
afraid to trust themselves among the voltigeurs and 
others on board. 

At the appointed time the forces from the vessels 
landed, the Cowichin chief, with a few attendants, 
receiving them; on a knoll a tent was pitched, and 
the white men waited the attendance of the rest. 
The chief advised the withdrawal of the troops a 
little out of sight, lest his people should be afraid to 
land. This was done, and yet nearly an hour elapsed 
before any of them appeared. Then two canoes were 
seen making their way quietly out of the river After 
them soon came six others, larger ones, all in a line. 
Paddling slowly along the shore, chanting their war- 
song, drumming on their canoes, and whooping like 
demons, they passed by the council-ground and landed 
a little beyond ; then rushing up the hill, shouting, and 
clashing their arms as if to shake with terror any 
army daring to oppose them, they stood glaring fero- 
ciously at the intruders. 

It was with difficulty Douglas could restrain his 
men from firing ; gradually the savages became quieter, 
however, and then they produced the murderer, armed, 
and painted from head to foot. A grandiloquent de- 
fence was then made by the prisoner, which would 
have done honor to any criminal lawyer, the burden 
of which was that he was wholly innocent. After 



PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 333 

more parleying, he was finally handed over to the 
white men, to be tried at Victoria. 

More fatherly advice was now in order. "I in- 
formed them that the whole country was a possession 
of tiie British crown," writes Douglas, thougli how 
he could reconcile such a statement with his prayer- 
book precept, Thou shalt not steal, which with such 
determined persistence he endeavored always to im- 
press upon their minds, the unsophisticated savage 
could not tell. Nevertheless, for the tobacco which 
was to follow, they promised loyalty, and white and 
red each went his way. 

On the 10th, the expedition appeared before Na- 
naimo and demanded a conference, which was prom- 
ised for the following day. Meanwhile Douglas 
ordered twenty-one voUigeurs under McKay to con- 
ceal themselves during the night in a canoe near the 
mouth of the Nanaimo River, and when the natives 
assembled about the vessel, should the other criminal 
not be forthcominsf, to search the village for him, 
while the chief, who was the father of the murderer, 
would be seized, and kept on board as hostage for 
their safety. Morning came, and with it the savages, 
bringing to the Beaver piles of valuable peltries in 
lieu of the murderer. But they were informed that 
no amount of property could buy the man's acquittal. 
The armed boats proceeded to the village. There 
all was deserted. Making themselves as comfortable 
as possible, though without destroying anything, the 
white men patiently awaited events, and were finally 
rewarded by the murderer being delivered into their 
hands without bloodshed. 

Surely nothing could be more noble than conduct 
like this on the part of the governor. It would have 
been so easy, so less trying to patience and dignity, 
to have given the word to fire, and so to have mowed 
down a hundred innocent men for the crime of the 
one guilty. " On one or two occasions," writes Doug- 
las to Tod, immediately after the capture of the first 



334 THE JUDICIAHY. 

criminal, "the affair had nearly taken a serious turn, 
a misfortune which could hardly have been avoided 
had it not been for the perfect arrangements of Lieu- 
tenant Sansum, and the admirable temper and for- 
bearance exhibited by the force in circumstances 
infinitely more trying to brave men than actual con- 
flict . . . The surrender of a criminal without bloodshed, 
at the requisition of the civil power, by the most 
warlike tribe on Vancouver Island, is an epoch in 
the history of our Indian relations which augurs for 
the future peace and prosperity of the colony. Tell the 
settlers to be prudent and vigilant; but at the same 
time entreat them to dismiss those idle terrors of 
Cowichin invasion which have so often distressed 
their minds." Arrived at Victoria, the Indians under- 
went a form of trial, and were executed.'* 

Not long afterward a white man was shot, but not 
mortally, at Cowichin, and soon the governor was 
there again with the Trincomalee towed by the Otter. 
Yet more peremptory conduct on both sides marked 
this occasion. The natives refused to give up the 
culprit, and desired to fight. Though considerate and 
humane, there was none braver or more determined 
than Douglas. He w^ould not harm the poor savages 
if he could possibly avoid it; but he would have the 
offender and satisfy justice if he swept the Island into 
the sea. 

The governor landed his forces, and each side drew 
up in battle-array; the red with tremendous and fearful 
noise, the white with mountain-howitzer and musket. 
Douglas beckoned the chief forward, and a parley 
ensued, but without favorable result. The white men 
then encamped where they were. Next morning the 
governor stood before the Cowichin village, still in 
the interests of peace and humanity. Behind him were 
the muskets and howitzer ready pointed awaiting his 
signal to fire. Instead of the chief, the murderer 

* Doxjlas' Private Pavers, 21 ser., MS., 31-4; Deans' Settlement V I , 
MS.. U. 



BLANSHARD AND DOUJLAS. 335 

himself, armed and painted, came out, hesitated a 
moment, then quickly raised his gun and pulled the 
triggxT. It missed fire, else the governor had probably 
been slain. And yet he did not give the signal to 
fire. Coolly and calmly he stood his ground, while 
the savages seized and bound the offender, and handed 
him to the governor for justice. The trial took place 
immediately, and the Indian wa.s hanged there before 
all his people.^ 

Such was the administration of justice during the 
first years of the Douglas rule. But the governor did 
not relish it. In his less dignified days he had fought 
Indians and hunted criminals to his heart's content. 
And now to continue in himself the offices of sheriff, 
judge^ and executive, together with a dozen others, 
was more than he cared for. Might he not make a 
judge even before legislators were convened, and after- 
ward get government to sanction the proceeding, and 
the colony to pay the cost? 

There was, about the time of this layt occurrence, 
at Cowichin on 3 David Cameron, Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany clerk, and superintendent of the coal-mines at 
Nanaimo He was a brother in-law of the governor — 
it IS wonderful hew prolific was the family wlicn offices 
were vacant bat we must also bear in mind how 
scanty was suitable governing material at this time. 
Here was an opportunity foi a httle stroke of busi- 
ness. And it was all business, civilizing, christian- 
izing, colonizing, and governing What shall I gain 
by it ? was the question and that not in heaven or 
hereafter, but here and now 

Cameron nad been brought up a draper; he once had 
charge of somebody's estate in the West Indies, and 
Jie now received from the company one hundred and 
fifty pounds a year for ins services. Though he knew 

* 'Court would somctitnefj be held a< which Indians were trie I. Flogging 
was sometimes inflicted upon th. natives, wliicli they deenieil vory disgraceful. 
Tlie deith-i)e:ialty was ialUcted jn Indians. McDonald, in Bra. Col, SLelchen, 
MS., 22, 



336 THE JUDICIARY. 

nothing of law, never having been called to the bar, 
yet he might make a most excellent judge, being 
brother-in-law to the king. In civil cases, at least, 
where human life was not at stake, he might serve 
well enough ; the company being always one of the 
parties in such suits, all he had to do was to decide 
in favor of the company. The matter of salary was 
worthy of consideration; but with his pay as clerk he 
might live ; it would cost nothing extra to act as judge ; 
there was honor in it, the first chief-justice of the 
colony, and all that; besides, it would not do to let so 
important an office go out of the family or out of the 
company. Suppose some big-wig having a knowledge 
of law and a mind of his own should come out from 
England armed with the authority of determining 
here, there, everywhere, what might and what might 
not be done, one who might even presume to instruct 
the governor in his duties, and prescribe limits to the 
power of the monopoly. It would be fearful; entail- 
ing, besides, heavy expenses upon the colony for the 
luxury of a curse. 

No! Since Blanshard's day, matters were not so 
bungled. Appoint Cameron ; get government to ratify 
the appointment; then let him serve without pay for 
the present, trusting that all will come out profita- 
bly in the end. And so it was done. The supreme 
court of civil judicature of Vancouver Island was 
created, and the draper became chief-justice of the 
colony.^ 

Rules to be observed in the supreme court for the 
admmistration of justice in civil cases were submitted 

^ • Was there any dissatisfaction expressed at the time of his appointment ? ' 
asked Mr Christy of Mr Cooper before the select committee. ' Strong remon- 
strances were made by petition to the governor, and by petition to the liouse of 
commons, was the reply House Commons Rept., H. B. Co., 1857, 202. 'The 
settlers at Red River in 1849 petition the removal of the recorder, Adam Thorn, 
because of his favoring the fur company in his decisions. Caldwell, in Id., 301. 
Mr Coopei before the select committee remarked of Mr Staines: ' He was per- 
secuted most vilely, I bebeve, myself, through the instrumentality of this Mr 
Cameron, for lie was a prominent party tliere; he. Rev. Mr Staines, was no 
doubt ol)noxious to the authorities, and he was persecuted on that account. 
House Commons Repf., H. B. Co., 1857, 193. 



DAVID CAMERON. 337 

by Chief-justice Cameron to the governor and coun- 
cil, and were approved the 17th of February 1857. A 
copy of these rules was transmitted to Mr Labou- 
chere for final approval, and proclamation made of the 
same on Vancouver Island/ 

Cameron received his nomination from Douglas in 
1853,^ and his appointment was confirmed by the colo- 
nial office about the end of the year, at w4iich time he 
was still at Nanaimo. Early in 1854 he took up his 
residence at Victoria, where he remained to the day 
of his death.^ Cameron was superseded by Needham^" 
in 1858, he by Begbie in 1859. 

But a government cannot be carried on forever with- 
out money. It had been stipulated that the proceeds 
from the sale of public lands might be devoted to colo- 
nial development. Before leaving the Island, Gov- 
ernor Blanshard had been informed by the Hudson's 
Bay Company that no salaries would be paid public 
officers out of the proceeds of land sales. Such salaries 
must be raised either by taxes or duties. " This is, in 
fact," remarked the governor, repudiating the clause 
in their grant which binds them to provide, at their 
own expense, all necessary civil and military establish 
ments; their own arrangements tend to prevent a tax- 
paying population settling here; and that the harbors 
shall be open to all nation for the purposes of trade is 
prominently put forward in the prospectus they have 
published." ^^ 

After the departure of Blanshard, however; after 
every element and person obnoxious to fur-trading 
traditions had been removed, when all revenue levied 
and collected should fall into the pockets or honorable 
clerks, traders, and factors — there was no longer ques- 

' House of Commons Returns to an Address, dated June 25, 1857, 18. 

* Tliis according to Cooi^er. Finlayson dates his appointment 'after the 
departure of Blanshard,' say in 1852. Hist. V. I., MS., 100. 

'He died at Belmont, V. I., the 14th of May 1872. Olympki Tramcript, 
25th May 1872. 

" ' Mr Xeedham was then knighted and appointed to a simihir position in 
the island of Trinidad, West Indies.' Finlayson s V. /., MS., 101. 

^^BkinsJirrrd's Despatches; 11. 

IIlST. BUIT. COL. 22 



338 THE JUDICIARY. 

tion as to tlie right disposition to be made of the pro- 
ceeds of land sales. ^" 

Some revenue might be secured from sales of land 
if settlers would come forward and pay their pound 
per acre; but if the lands did not sell, the privilege 
was of little avail. Was there no other agency 
whereby patriots might secure profit as well as honor 
for their services ? Yes : there was rum. As a civilizer, 
rum had been always king. Whoever heard of the 
accomplishment of great things in the new world- — of 
conquests, conversions, pacifications, and occupations — 
without the aid of alcohol? White men and red men 
both loved it, and would lay down their life for it. 
Let this stimulant, tlien, do Avliat every other stimu- 
lant failed to accomplish ; let whiskey energize where 
philantrophy, enlightenment, and progress could not 
inspire. Let justice be supported by the emoluments 
of vice, and let the noble institutions of Europe be 
planted in America with empty rum-barrels for their 
foundation. So, by order of the governor in council, 
liquor-dealers in Vancouver Island were made to pay 
each an annual license of one hundred and twenty 
pounds. At tlie time when the first house of assembly 
met there were four of these licenses on the Island, 
one held by the Hudson's Bay Company, and three 
by retail dealers. 

By paying this annual license, keepers of public 
houses might freely import liquors and sell without 
further restriction. There Avere no duties on spirits 
or groceries, and on this license liquors might be sold 
in any quantities or to any persons except Indians. 
No license was required to sell any article except 
spirits. And although this hcense was by many 
deemed exorbitant, yet if there had been no more un- 
wise provisions in colonial regulations, as colonization 
goes, immigrants would have been more than usually 
fortunate. By this means, in due time, the sum of 

'- ' The revenue of Vancouver IsLond prior to 1858 arose principally from 
the sale of land.' Finliyson's Hint. V. I., MS., S-4. 



KEVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. 2R9 

one hundred pounds per annum was provided for the 
chief-justice.'^ 

For the year ending November 1, 1855, the pubhc 
expenditure of the colony was £4,107 2s. 3c?. The in- 
come from all sources, including duty on licensed houses 
and sales of public land, was £693 25. lOd Among 
the items of expenditure were government premises, 
£7 15s. 10c/.; surveying department, £083 18s. Id.; 
roads and bridges, £1,388 5s. 5c/.; Victoria Church, par- 
sonage and chaplain, £1,362 17s. 5c/.; public schools, 
£320 4s. lie/.; poor-rates, £10 10s. Sd.; administration 
cf justice, £100; jail expenses, £30 9s. 2c/.; militia, 
£81 8s. 8c?. From land sales were received £334 17s. 
Cc/., and from duty on licensed houses £340. 

On the 6th of December 1856, the house of assembly 
ashed the governor what the revenue of the colony 
might be. The reply was, "that the house can exer- 
cise a direct control only over the revenue raised in 
the colony through the act of the general legislature. 
The revenue derived from the tax on licensed houses 
is therefore, I conceive, the only fund absolutely at 
our disposal; the proceeds arising from land sales, 
royalties, and timber duties being remitted and placed 
to the account of the reserve fund in England, which 
is, however, also exclusively applicable for colonial 
purposes, with the exception of ten per cent allowed 
by virtue of the charter of grant to the Hudson's Bay 
Company." The revenue received from licensed houses 
was, in 1853, £220, in 1854, £460, and in 1855, £340.'* 

"And now, besides the £150 as clerk, Cameron 'receives also another £100 
per annum from what is called the license fund. There are heavy licenses 
from the publicans; they pay about £120 per annum. I believe that gives an 
iucoine to the colony of about £400 or £500 i)er auuum, and he receives £100 
out of it.' Cooper, in I/oK-ie Commons Ri-zpt., JI. B. Co., 1857, 193. 

1* r.etwee:i tlie 12th of July 1855 and the 10th of October 1S5G, there were 
sold of public lands 2,137 acres. 'The extent of unimprovable rock,' says 
William (j. Smith, secretary of the Hudson's Bay Company, in his statement 
rendered the governor, the IGth of October 1856, 'added to the allowance 
made for roads, somewhat exceeds 837 acres, leaving 1,299 acres, three roods, 
and 20 perches cliargeable to purchasers; on which £512 17^. Gd. has been 
already paid in, and there remains payable by annual instalments the snm of 
£787 0.S-. lOr/.' In addition to above, £6,193 was received from the Hudson's 
Bay Company for lands purchased or reserved by them. Up to the 1 9th of 
July 1855, the total amount received from land sales was £6,871 9*. 4(/. Tlie 



340 THE JUDICIARY. 

An appropriation for £130 passed the assembly the 
18tli of December 1856, and was approved by the 
council and governor the 14th of February 1857. 
The items, all of which were to be paid out of the duty 
derived from licensed houses, were as follows: £50, 
to be placed at the disposal of the governor, to pay for 
copying documents for the use of the house; £10 to 
Kobert Barr for services as clerk of house; £5 to 
Andrew Muir for services as sergeant-at-arms ; £25 
for salary of clerk of house for 1857; £15 for salary 
of sergeant-at-arms and messenger for 1857; £20 for 
heating, lighting, and furnishing house of assembly 
for 1857; £5 for stationery for members of assembly. ^^ 

The truth is, government on the Island thus far, 
with the sole exception of the legally appointed 
governor, who could have performed all the duties of 
that office equally as well had he been only chief 
factor in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company's 
affairs, was mere sham. The council was a sham, in- 
competent to ordain; the chief-justice was a sham, 
the hireling of the monopoly, knowing no law; and 
the legislature was a sham, for there never had been 
given, by act of parliament, sufficient power to con- 
stitute a legislature. All that had been done was 
done by the power of the crown. The colony was 
first ruled by a governor in council, which government 
soon came to a standstill because it proposed to levy 
duties on spirits, or issue liquor licenses, when it pos- 
sessed no authority; then it was that an abortive 
attempt was made to set up in the Island a free legis- 
lature. 

moneys received by the Hudson's Bay Company were remitted to London. 
By the 10th of October 1853, they had remitted £3,577 5.s-. 2d.; the Puget 
Sound Company had paid in London £2,574, and £120 had been paid by W. 
C. Grant and J. Huggins in London. House Commons' Returns to an Address, 
14. 

^^ Minutes of Council 14th Feb. 1857 in House Commons' Returns to an Ad- 
dress. 19. 



CHAPTER, XX. 

THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

1858. 

Gold ! Hail All-powerfcl and Most Worshipful ! — Its Presence not 
Secretly Known to the Fur-traders — Discovery on Vancouver 
Island — On Queen Charlotte Islands — On Skeena River — In the 
Cascade Mountains of Washington — At Colville — At ICamloop — 
On Thompson River— On Eraser River — The Tidings Spread— The 
Matter Laid before Government — Effect on California — Rush to 
THE Mines — Routes and Methods of Transportation — Whatcom 
VERSUS Victoria — Trail-making — Overland Expeditions — Licenses 
AND Imposts — Effect on the Fur-traders. 

High above all principalities and powers, above 
religious fanaticism or love of empire, above patriot- 
ism, philanthropy, family aifection, honor, virtue, or 
things supernal or infernal, there now arises in this 
Northwest wilderness an influence which overshadows 
every other influence, which shrivels into insignifi- 
cance fur companies, licenses to trade, pounds per acre, 
settlement, skins of wild beasts or lives of wild men, 
missionaries, governors, parliaments, houses of assei-- 
bly, and even rum. 

Here history begins anew. It is as though noth- 
ing had been ; as though all was present and to come. 

Amongst the many sins charged upon the Hudson's 
Bay Company, by the hungry horde that invaded their 
territories during the wild excitement of 1858, was 
one in effect that the existence of gold on the upper 
Fraser and elsewhere had long been known to the 
company's officers, prior to that unwelcome appear- 

(341) 



342 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITE:\IENT. 

ance, and that such knowledge had, through motives 
of pohcy, been kept secret. 

While it is not of the slightest importance to any 
one, least of all to those then upon the gound in 
search of the metal, how long fur-traders had known 
of its existence, if of that pestiferous crew there are 
any now living to whom the fact that such previous 
knowledge did not exist can bring comfort, let them 
henceforth possess their souls in peace. It would 
surely seem the last thing of which sane men could 
complain, for had such knowledge been published, 
where now would be their chance? Kather let them 
thank tlie good traders for keeping the secret. 

The fact, however, had not been known. ^ Reticent 
as were the traders by law and by instinct, they could 
not long have kept secret a knowledge of the existence 
of any large quantity of precious metal, even had it 
been to their interest to do so. And as to their inter- 
est, when such knowledge was almost sure to spoil 
forever their dearly loved hunting-ground, how could 
those doubt who were unaware how near their end 
the company were before the great gold excitement, 
how a renewal of their exclusive trade license had 
already been refused them, how great might be their 
harvest with all their superior facilities of men, ships, 
fortresses well stored with goods, of organization, 
capital, familiarity with the natives, and knowledge 
of ihe country, should the region rapidly fill with 
enei getic humanity 1 

But although gold on the upper Eraser was not 
uncovered to any one long prior to the so-called 
Eraser River excitement, its existence in supposed 
inconsiderable quantities elsewhere in British Colum- 
bia had been openly and for some time known. The 
silly suspicion of the miners, that the knowledge 



^ ' No suspicion of the fact ever existed, as I can personally aver. Indeed, 
it was not till after a consitlerable interval, and after mu ih careful research by 
experienced miners from California, that the riches of the Cariboo mines were 
partially developed. ' AndtrsoHS Nortliwest Coad, MS., IIG. 



EARLIEST GOLD INDICATIONS. 343 

existed and was kept secret, never was true of any 
part of the country, or at afiy time. 

When during the summer of 1850 Joseph W. ]\Ic- 
Kay was exploring for farming lands between Vic- 
toria and Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, he found 
in various places particles of gold, but nowhere in 
sufficient quantities to warrant further investigation. 
Nevertheless, it was a gold-field that he had found, 
and mines were worked there subsequently.^ 

During this same year, the mania for gold then 
raging in California having penetrated savagedom, 
a native of the Queen Charlotte Islands appeared at 
Victoria with a bag of specimens.^ 

Writing Earl Grey the 29th of March 1851, Gov- 
ernor Blanshard says: *'I have heard that fresh speci- 
mens of gold have been obtained from the Queen 
Cliarlotte's Islanders. I have not seen them myself, 
but they are reported to be very rich. The Hudson's 
Bay Company's servants intend to send an expedition 
in the course of the summer to make proper investi- 
gations."^ The brigantine Huron was despatched ac- 
cordingly, ostensibly to trade, but really to search for 
gold. Failing in which, and for want of something 
better to do, the men broke up part of a quartz ledge, 



2 In August 1858 there was quite a flurry of excitement in Victoria respect- 
ing the presence of gold in that vicinity, as if it were then a new thing. ' One 
account asserts positively that five ounces were taken from diggings south-east 
of Victoria, . . .while another changes the location to a nearly opposite point.' 
Victoria ilazt'Uc, Aug. 19, 1858. Rumors increased, until within a week after- 
ward gold was everywhere — under the governor's houses, at Silver Lake, at 
Saanich, and at Dead Man's Creek. 'It has been found back of Nanaimo, 
and is known to exist on other islands in these waters.' Victoria Gazstte, Aug. 
2(3, 1858. 'Cue location about twenty miles from Nanaimo is now, 1878, 
being worked by Chinamen.' McKnifs Hecnllertions, MS., 11. 

2 'Gold had been discovered in Queen Charlotte's Islaml in 1850, but only 
in small quantities.' Britiih Columbia inul Vaiicourer Island, 1"J7, by Wil- 
liam Carew Hazlitt. This little book, a IGmo of 247 pages in yellow boards, 
was published in London in 1858 with a map to all appearance much older 
in its compilation than the text. Mr Hazlitt is evidently a journeyman 
author, whose wages were too low to warrant good work. His book is mostly 
extracts, well selected, and from wiilcly extended sources, the original parts 
being desultory, and lacking bot'n preciseness and consistency. 

* Blnii.f/iard'.i Dciyatrhes, 10. The jjovernor was not very definite in his 
ideas of metals, or precise in his use of words. 



344 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

and carrying the pieces on board their vessel, re- 
turned in triumph to Victoria. Again on the 12th 
of May, Blanshard observes: "Reports are current of 
gold having been found by the Cowitchin Indians, in 
the Arro Canal, but they are so vague as scarcely to 
deserve notice." 

Rowland of the sloop Georgina from Australia had a 
mate named McEwen, who had been in the service 
of the Hudson's Bay Company. In one of his expe- 
ditions to the north, McEwen professed to have landed 
on Queen Charlotte Islands, and to have chiselled some 
gold out of a quartz seam. This was exhibited by 
Rowland and McEwen at Olympia in the autumn of 
1851. It was their opinion that if they could organize 
a company and go to the spot in sufficient force, they 
could load their vessel with gold. An expedition was 
fitted out at Olympia, which sailed in the Georgina in 
November 1851. Being forced to come to anchor at 
Neah Bay, on account of bad weather, the Dameras 
Cove, Captain Balch, was encountered at the same 
place. Balch was out on an oil and fur-trading ex- 
pedition, but on learning the destination of the Geor- 
gina — in spite of the mystery that surrounded it — ■ 
he followed the sloop northward.^ The unfortunate 
ending of this venture is given elsewhere. In the 
summer of 1851, the Hudson's Bay Company, with- 
out further showing, despatched the brigantine Huron 
with a number of men, who had experience in mining, 
to the spot indicated by the native who had brought 
the specimens to Victoria some time previous. They 
spent several months prospecting the islands, and 
though they failed to find placers at the place indi- 
cated by the native, after considerable searching along 
a quartz outcrop they succeeded in finding a good 
ledge which showed free gold in nearly every speci- 
men. They were not prepared to undertake quartz- 
mining operations; and as it was now late in the 
season, they gathered about half a ton of specimens 

* Weed's Queen Charlotte Island, ISIS., 9-19. 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 345 

and returned to Victoria, intending to resume their 
work on the ledge better prepared the following 
spring.^ McEwen's specimens seem to have come 
from the same place, and not improbably they were 
obtained from the same native. It was in a little 
harbor on the west coast of Moresby Island, the 
southern island of the group, subsequently known as 
Gold Harbor, also as Mitchell Harbor, named after 
Captain Mitchell of the Recovery. 

In the following spring of 1852, Queen Charlotte 
Islands witnessed the arrival of numerous expeditions. 
There were five vessels in Mitchell Harbor at one 
time; and the hills were full of prospectors. A party 
of miners from the Nanaimo coal-mines, taken there 
by the Una on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
was well provisioned and provided with every requisite 
for blasting on a large scale. The whole ended in dis- 
appointment. A quartz vein seven inches in width, 
traceable for eighty feet, contained in some places 
twenty-five per cent of gold, but the hope of loading 
vessels here with gold was forever abandoned. 

In the Fort Simpson journal, the 8th of April 1852, 
is found written: ''This day one of the chiefs from 
Skenar River that arrived here yesterday brought a 
few small pieces of gold ore to the fort; also two 
large pieces of quartz rock with a few particles of 
gold ore introduced. The chief. . . tells me that it 
would take me seven days to go where the gold is to 
be found and return back to the fort. I am told by 
others that we can go to the place in two days, or 
forty-eight hours, by trail. The chief tells me that 
the gold is to be seen in many places on the surface 
of the rock for some distance, say two miles. This is 
a most important discovery, at least I think so, and 
may prove more convenient for us to work tluin the 
diggings on Queen Charlotte Island. I shall go or 
send to have a look at this and examine this new dis- 
covery so soon as possible. I gave the chief that 

^McKai/s Recollections, MS., 12-15. 



346 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

brought the rock and ore a larger canoe, value five 
elk-Rkins, which pleased him much. We showed him 
other civilities. I hope the company, and myself also, 
will reap some benefit from this discovery, as I have 
ten children that would be much pleased to finger a 
portion of the precious metal. Who knows but this 
discovery may prove more valuable than the diggings 
in California." To which prayer the sailor McNeill 
affixed his initials. 

The 24th of the same month the fort scribe enters: 
''Pierre Lagrace with his son and four Indians had 
started in the morning to visit the place where gold 
has been found at Skenar River. They had not pro- 
ceeded far when the steamer was seen in the distance, 
and they turned back, together with four other canoes 
which had also started for the river on a trading excur- 
sion... We w^ere most pleased to hear that all our 
friends to the south were well, and that the Recovery, 
one of our vessels, had gone to Queen Charlotte 
Island to hunt for and obtain gold. Captains Mitchell 
and Stuart and Dr Kennedy were the superior oflScers 
of the party, in all forty souls." 

May 5th: "About noon Chief Factor Work with 
Pierre Lagrace, Quintal, and four Indians started in 
a canoe for Skenar Piver to examine the gold re- 
gions said to exist up that river. They will probably 
be absent about fourteen days." Punctually to the 
hour Work returned and reported no gold on Skeena 
River, and his journey a failure. 

The 8th of May word came to Fort Simpson from 
Kennedy on board the Recovery, that "two American 
vessels are lying in Mitchell's Harbour, viz., the Tepic 
from Liverpool, and the Susan Sturgis from Nisqually. 
The vein had been worked out by some vessel, and he 
had no hopes of obtaining gold. Six more vessels 
w^ere expected soon from the Columbia and San Fran- 
cisco. The Recovery had been leaking both at sea 
and in harbour. This will be another bad speculation 
in my opinion," concludes the Fort Simpson journal- 



SKEENA RIVER. 347 

keeper. Nevertheless, Kennedy wanted more mining 
tools, an outfit of which, with beads and cod-hooks, 
was despatched by canoe on the 12th, and charged to 
the account of the Recovery. Letters received the 
16th repoi'ted that "no gold had been procured by 
blasting," and that "the American vessels had all 
gone awa}^ quite disappointed."" 

Anotlicr chief, arriving at Fort Simpson on the 5th 
September from Skeena River, reported gold. Chief 
Factor Work was fast catching the fever. For these 
many years furs alone had filled his brain. Now lie 
found room for metals. It would be so pleasant to 
liave his old age made mellow with gold. The natives 
of Nass River had brought in specimens of various 
metals from their country, and thither, on the 13th, 
Work set out in a canoe to see what he could make 
of it. If, indeed, another California might be found 
in the north, how happy would be the Hudson's Bay 
Company! Nevertheless, Work returned from his 
adventure unsuccessful. "Nothing like gold was seen 
during his cruise," writes the anxious father of ten 
children. 

Thus years before the great excitement, all along 
the coast, from Fuca Strait to Skeena River, were 
thought and talk of gold; and when men looked for 
it, they generally found evidence of its presence. 

George B. McClellan in 1853 found gold in con- 
siderable quantities, as he expresses it, on the military 

'Fort Simpson Journal, MS., 1852. See also Compton''s Ahorijinal Brit. 
Col, MS., GO. William ^I. Turner elaborates to the extent of seven pages in 
the Occrimd Monthly, Feb. 1875, a statement to the effect that in Feb. 1852 
cue Jack McLean, a Scotch sailor, once in the service of the Hmlsou's Bay 
Company, arrived at 8an Francisco, and reported gold at Eaglelicld Harbor, 
Queen C'liarlotte Islands. The fur-traders were then there, lie said, gathering 
the metal, and jealous of any intrusion. On his way down he liad been 
wrecked. On the evidence of some specimens lie showed, sixty-live persons 
embarked at San Francisco the 29th of March on board the brig Tepic, Cap- 
tain Lortt. Arrived at Englelield Harbor, they were soon overhauled by the 
first mate of the Recovery, who informed them that tliey were ^v^thiu British 
dominion, and that they were requested to depart from that coast. To which 
they gave an impudent answer, and pushing ashore began prospecting. Their 
manhood and independence thus vindicated, after a month's stay they returned 
whence they came. 



348 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

road survey through the Naches Pass in the Cas- 
cade Mountains, between Walla Walla and Fort 
Steilacoom, and in his Northern Pacific Railway ex- 
plorations at Similkameen, his men panning- it out at 
the rate of two dollars a day. Alfred Waddington, a 
former Mariposa miner, saw in 1854 an Indian chief 
in the Colville country who had placer gold in his 
2^ossession. 

Henry De Groot, an indefatigable explorer, pros- 
pector, and writer upon mining developments, having 
visited British Columbia in 1858, states that Chief 
Trader McLean at Kamloop procured gold-dust from 
the natives in that vicinity as early as 1852, since which 
time more or less gold has been received from the 
natives at that and other posts, though not enough 
to awaken a suspicion in the minds of the traders that 
paying diggings existed in the country; and that 
various parties at different times prospected the 
banks of the Thompson between 1855, the date of the 
discovery of the Colville mines, and 1858. It was at 
Nicommen, on the Thompson near its junction with 
the Eraser, according to some authorities, that the 
first gold was found in paying quantities in British 
Columbia. Chinese and Indians were eno-ao-ed in 
mining at that ]3lace in favorable seasons as late as 
1876. The account of the first discovery at Nicommen 
was very circumstantially given by Douglas in his 
diary under the date of August 14, 1860, without 
stating the date of the discovery. " Gold," he writes, 
"was first found on Thompson Biver by an Indian, a 
quarter of a mile below Nicommen. He is since dead. 
The Indian was taking a drink out of the river; having 
no vessel, he was quaffing from the stream, when he 
perceived a shining pebble, which he picked up, and 
it proved to be gold. The whole tribe forthwith began 
to collect the glittering metal. "^ 

Mr Finlayson says gold was first found in crevices 

^Daioson on Mines, 40; Doto/Ias' Private Papers, 1st ser., MS., 124-5; 
Hazlitt's B. C, 127; De Groot' s B. C, 13. 



THOMPSON AND FRASER RIVERS. 34£ 

of the rocks on the banks of the Thompson Kiver. 
McLean, the officer in charge at Kamloop, inspected the 
gTound, and then sent down to Victoria for some iron 
spoons for the purpose of digging out the nuggets. 
The spoons were sent up as requested, and ^IcLean was 
instructed to give every encouragement to the natives 
to have them procure and bring in the gold, and to ob- 
tain all that he could. Shortly afterward, an Ameri- 
can named Adams, a miner of some experience, began 
washing for gold on the Fraser. He gathered a small 
bag full of fine dust, which he exhibited, according to 
Mr Finlayson, on Puget Sound and at other places. 
The news so attested went from mouth to mouth, and 
spread rapidly through Oregon and California.^ Mr 
Anderson states that the first intimation the Hudson's 
Bay people had of the existence of gold in the interior 
was in 1855, when Angus McDonald, clerk in charge 
at Colville, "wrote down to Fort Vancouver that one 
of his men, while employed hauling firewood, had al- 
most undesignedly amused himself by washing out a 
pannikin of gravel on the beach near Colville." Par- 
ticles of gold were found, which excited curiosity and 
invited further search; parties went out to prospect, 
and at the north of Pend d'Oreille River near the 
boundary, diggings were found which were moderately 
remunerative. According to his account, it was in 1857 
that the existence of gold was ascertained near the 
mouth of the Thompson, and it was the exaggerated 
report of this discovery reaching California, he believes, 
that caused the great rush of 1858.^" Douglas noticed 
a later commnuication of McDonald's in a letter to 
Labouchere of the colonial office, dated Victoria, 
April IG, 1856, in which he states that according 
to McDonald's report from the upper Caledonia 
district in March 1856, gold had been found on 
the upper Columbia in considerable quantities, the 
daily earning of persons then employed in the dig- 

'Finlnysons V. I. and Northioest Coa.tt, MS., 5G-G0. Ailams' doings are 
here confused with McDonald's. 

^° Andersons IlUt. Nortlnvest Coast, MS., 117-18. 



350 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

gings being from ten to forty dollars to the man. 
James Cooper testified before the British parliamen- 
tary committee investigating the affairs of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company in 1857, touching the particulars of 
the discovery, expressing the belief that it was highly 
important, and that there would be a great rush into 
the country. His language was prophetic, for it was but 
twelve months later when from thirty to forty thou- 
sand people came into British Columbia from the south. 

Waddington affirms that some Canadians from Fort 
Colville went over to the Thompson and Bonaparte, 
and thence to the Fraser above the Big Falls. They 
prospected on their way, found gold almost every- 
where, and concluded to tarry among the natives on 
the Thompson in order to try their fortune at mining. 
It was the report of the results obtained by these men 
which induced others in the season of 1857-8 to em- 
bark in mining; and results exceeding expectations, 
the news was spread over Puget Sound and thence 
carried to San Francisco. De Groot's version is that 
in the summer and autumn of 1857 a number of per- 
sons from Oregon and Washington territories, familiar 
with the operations at the Colville mines, accom- 
panied by a sprinkling of Canadians and half-breeds, 
formerly in the Hudson's Bay Company's service at 
Colville, made their way to the junction of the Thomp- 
son with the Fraser. They found several rich bars in 
that vicinity, and worked them with good success. 
He also states that it was the news of their success 
which caused the Fraser Biver excitement. 

jMcDonald and Adams, two partners who were 
engaged in mining on the Thompson and Fraser, in 
1857-8 brought down some of the first gold from the 
bars where the first profitable workings were carried 
on. At the mouth of the Fraser, McDonald killed 
Adams and secured his gold, which he carried to 
Olympia, and there displayed it.^^ 

1^ Waddimjton's Fraser Mines, 5; De Groot's B. C, 13, referring to Wacl- 
dington's second party. Doiujlas, in Cornwallis N. El Dorado, 351-4; Cooper's 



QUESTION OF OWNERSHIP. 351 

The officers of tlie fur company at Victoria were 
well informed at the same time of the mining oi)era- 
tions that were going on in the valley of the Fniser, 
and its tributary the Thompson, but not coming in 
contact directly with the miners who emerged from 
the mountains in the spring of 1858 with the evi- 
dences of the auriferous wealth of the great river of 
British Columbia, or for some other reason not ex- 
plained, they did not realize fully the importance of 
the facts, nor anticipate the effects that might be pro- 
duced. Douglas, in a letter to Labouchere, dated 
Victoria, December 29, 1857, speaks of the Couteau 
mines, so named after the natives of the Thompson 
and Shush wap countries, as having attracted atten- 
tion. "The auriferous character of the country is be- 
coming daily more extensively developed," he writes, 
"through the exertions of the native Indian tribes, 
who, having tasted the sweets of gold -finding, are de- 
voting much of their time and attention to that pur- 
suit." 

The product exported through the agency of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, from October 6, 1857, to the 
end of that year, and supposed by them to be all that 
was carried out of the country, was three hundred 
ounces. Douglas mentions tlie fact in the same con- 
nection that the reported wealth of the Couteau coun- 
try was causing much excitement in Washington 
Territory and Oregon.^'^ At Olympia, Ballon, (xar- 
field, and Williams, as partners, were merchandising 
during the winter of 1857-8, and more or less gold 
came to them from the Eraser. The specimens showed 
them by IMcDonakl particularly attracted their atten- 
tion, and the attention of others. Ballou doubted 
the report of the company's officials, that the gold was 
mostly found by the natives, on the ground that more 
would then have been realized. Deeming the discovery 

Mar. M'Ttfers, MS., 11; Ballou s Adv., MS., 3. The allegecl killing of Adanos 
rests wholly on Ballou 's opinion. 

'^Douylao to Labouchere, iu Coniwaltii' JV\ El L'orado, 347-54. 



352 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

of sufficient importance to outweigh all other con- 
siderations of trade, Ballou, accompanied by John 
Scranton, Governor McMullin, Secretary of the Ter- 
ritory Mason, and several others, early in the spring 
went to Victoria to ascertain what the Hudson's Bay 
people knew about the matter. They confirmed all 
the reports. Instead of going to the gold-fields, Ballou 
proceeded at once to San Francisco. Having under- 
gone the excitements of the southern mines, and sub- 
sequently of the northern mines of California as an 
expressman, he conceived the idea that whatever 
might be the merit of the mines, there was certain 
profit in the express business, and hence he forthwith 
started Ballou's express from San Francisco to the 
Fraser River mines. ^^ 

The state of knowledge of the mines, and the facts on 
which the gold excitement was based, may be further 
deduced from the official acts and the correspondence 
of Governor Douglas. Christmas week, 1857, at Fort 
Victoria, had been enlivened by the substantial com- 
munications, accompanied with gold-dust, that were 
received from Chief Trader McLean at the post near- 
est the forks of Thompson River, the results of the 
washings by the Indians already referred to. On 
the same day that he despatched the information to 
the colonial office, December 29, 1857, Governor 
Douglas issued a proclamation declaring that all the 
gold in its natural place of deposit belonged to the 
crown, referring in particular to the gold found within 
the Couteau country, embraced by the Fraser and 
Thompson districts. This proclamation "forbade all 
persons to dig or disturb the soil in search of gold 

^^ BalhiCs Adv., MS., 3. Billy Ballou, as he was called, was a wild waif, 
a hare-brained adventurer of French descent, who since 1846 had been float- 
ing about the mountains and shores of the Pacific. Beginning with the Mexi- 
can war, he passed through a pioneer experience in California and the Sound 
country before going to British Columbia. He was much broken in health 
when I took his dictation at Seattle in 1878, and died shortly afterward. His 
information was certainly as varied as that of any man I ever met, and he 
gave it me in good faith, yet while I have no reason to doubt his word, be- 
fore placing implicit confidence in an important statement, I should prefer to 
see it verified. 



SPOLIATION OF THE I^IAINLAND PARK. 333 

until authorized in that behalf by her majesty's colonial 
government." Douglas acknowledged in his commu- 
nication of December the 29th to Labouchere, that 
he had no authority to make such a proclamation 
in regard to a country beyond the jurisdiction of his 
government, but pleaded in excuse the fact that he 
was invested with authority over the domain of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, and that he was the only 
representative of her Majesty within reach. A license 
of ten shillings a month was demanded, in virtue of 
which persons were permitted to mine under pre- 
scribed limits and conditions. 

On the 14th of January 1858, Governor Douglas 
reported further news from the mines to the colonial 
office. " From the successful result of experiments 
made in washing the gold from the sands of the tribu- 
tary streams of Fraser River," says Douglas, "■ there 
is reason to suppose that the gold region is extensive, 
and I entertain sanguine hopes that future researches 
will develop stores of wealth perhaps equal to the 
gold-fields of California — the geological formations 
observed in the Sierra Nevada of California being 
similar in character to the structure of the corre- 
sponding range of mountains in this latitude." On the 
6th of April he wrote to Labouchere " that the search 
for gold up to the last dates from the interior was 
carried on almost exclusively by the native popula- 
tion, who had discovered the productive mines, and 
washed out almost all the gold, about eight hundred 
ounces, thus fVir exported from the country; and that 
they were extremely jealous of the whites digging for 
gold." 

" In addition to the diggings before known on 
Thompson River and its tributary streams, a valuable 
deposit has recently been found by the natives on the 
bank of the Fraser River, about five miles beyond its 
confluence with the Thompson; and gold in smaller 
quantities has been found in possession of the natives 
as far as the great falls of the Fraser, about eighty 

Hist. BniT.''CoL. 23 



334 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

miles above the forks." Seventy or eighty Ameri- 
cans had gone to the mines without procuring licenses. 
By a despatch dated April 19th the arrival of George 
Simpson, bearer of despatches from Chief Trader Islc- 
Lean, was announced, bringing news from the forks 
of the Thompson, to April 4th, which was very flat- 
tering, but not supported by a large return of gold- 
dust. "Simpson reports," says Douglas, "that gold 
is found in more or less abundance on every part of 
the Fraser, from Yale to the forks, but I presume 
those diggings cannot be very productive or there 
would have been a larger return of gold."^* 

And here begins the infection which spread with 
such swift virulence in every direction. Though 
Cooper considers it "almost imposible to trace the 
origin of the gold excitement," it seems to me we have 
it plainly enough before us. It is noised abroad that 
gold abounds in British Columbia. Then men every- 
where throughout the world begin to study their 
maps, to see where is situated the favored isle that 
guards the auriferous Mainland. California is to be 
outdone, as the rivers of British Columbia are larger 
than those of California. The glories of Australia 
shall pale before this new golden aurora horeal'is}" 
As in California the precious metal was most abun- 
dant near the sources of the streams, and was thought 
by some to have flowed in with the streams from the 
north, so in the north, it is now expected, may be found 
the primitive source where the deposits were origi- 
nally formed. And so the settlers on Vancouver Island, 
on the Cowlitz, and on the Columbia, leave their 
farms; then the servants of the monopol}^ fling off 
allegiance; the saw-mills round the Sound are soon 
idle; and finally wave after wave of eager advent- 
urers roll in from the south and east, from Oregon 

^* Douglas' Official Correspondence, in Cornwallls' N. El Dorado, 343-S63. 
1^ Wculdinrjfon's Fraser Mines, 5; Anderson's Hist. Northwest Coast, MS., 
116-17; Cooper's Mar. Matters, MS., 14. 



PROGRESS OF THE FEVER. 355 

and from California, from the islands and Australia, 
from Canada and Europe, until the third great devil- 
dance of the nations within the decade begins upon 
the Fraser. 

Ellwood Evans remarks that the newspapers of 
Oregon and Washington Territory continued silent 
in regard to the existence of gold in the Northwest 
until March 1858, not believing that it would ever 
be found in quantities sufficiently large to attract im- 
migration in that direction. Gold, said they, had been 
reported as found by the Northern Pacific Railroad 
exploring parties in 1853. It was reported, and by 
some surmised to exist, in large quantities on the bars 
of the Upper Columbia, but the metal was not forth- 
coming in quantity, and not really believed in. The 
matter failed to excite the attention of the Hudson's 
Bay Compan}^ till Angus McDonald reported the 
Coiville excitement to Governor Douglas March 1, 
185G.'*' On the 5th of March 1858, the Olvmpia 
Pioneer and Democrat, one of the first papers published 
in Washington Territory, announced the rumors of 
"Reported Gold Discoveries," brought from "Victoria 
l)y the schooner Wild Pigeon. March 12th the same 
journal contained ''Good News from the Gold Mines" 
of Fraser River. March 26th it had an account of 
"The Gold Regions of the North, Highty Favorable 
Reports." April 9th there was " Further Encourag- 
ing News." April IGth there was a spread of "Late 
Reliable and Confirmatory Tidings." The San Fran- 
cisco Herald, on the 20th of April 1858, recorded 
that the excitement was fully equal in extent to that 
which arose in the Atlantic States from the reports 
of gold discoveries in California in 1849. At one leap 
British Columbia had become the rival if not the peer 
of California herself 

The Eraser River excitement began and was spread 
from Puget Sound. Captain Pre vest of H. M. S. Satel- 
lite, stationed at Esquimalt, on the 7th of May 1858 

^^ Evans' Fraser River Excilement, MS., l'2-20. 



3oG THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT 

wrote to the admiralty office that the excitement was 
much orreater in Washington and Oregfon than on Van- 
couver Island, several hmidred persons having at that 
time gone totiie Fraser River mines from Puget Sound, 
where all the vessels were lying deserted by their 
crews. ^'^ These vessels were the ordinary means of com- 
munication with San Francisco from that part of the 
coast carrying ] umber, Douglas' announcement in 1 8 5 6 
had been received abroad with comparative disbelief. 
No sooner was the fact of the existence of gold upon 
the Fraser in paying quantities established beyond a 
doubt, than a logical effect worked itself out upon the 
Californian mind. Action as prompt as the idea was 
the result. An excitement arose throughout society, 
which caused an unparalleled exodus. To the Cal- 
ifornia miner the deduction followed naturally that 
the history of California was to be reproduced. The 
foundation of the idea was clearly expressed by Douglas 
in his despatch of January 14, 1858, the extension to 
the north-west of the same mountains and geological 
formations, a fact well known in a general way from 
the reports of the Oregonians and Canadians who had 
been to the California mines. Only the additional 
fact was needed that the Fraser was another Sacra- 
mento, to lead logically to the clearest demonstra- 
tion that a great gold area was washed and sluiced 
by the Fraser and its tributaries. Vague as were 
the ideas touching where or how the gold would be 
found, whether in the Cascade canon or on the slopes 
of the Rocky Mountains, there was needed no further 
evidence than that to remove every doubt touching 
the vast importance of this discovery. In the blind 
hopeful way of the gold prospectors, it seems to have 
been anticipated that the richness of the sands of the 
Fraser would be found in some proportion to the size 
of that river. Doubtless many who made this ven- 
ture reasoned more accurately — that the discovery 
was simply important in a degree proportionate to the 

^' CornwalUs' New El Dorado, 365-6. 



EFFECT IN CALIFORNIA. 357 

area of the new country to be opened by the mines, 
and made accessible by the valley of the Fraser. 
Untold auriferous wealth in connection with the great 
commercial and agricultural region of British Colum- 
bia with its European climate, though predestined for 
discovery under the developments of time with the 
necessary conditions thereto, justified these hopes 
without rewarding the energy and enterprise of the 
adventurers of 1858. 

In California, the seaport of San Francisco was 
almost in the gold-mines; the mines were near the sea, 
with no intervening difficulties. A different kind of 
test was in reserve for the mining industry in the 
north, where the lofty sierra, and five hundred miles 
of distance, and much geographical and geological 
exploration had to be undergone, with trials and fail- 
ures, before all the conditions of general prosperity 
to miners and traders could be fulfilled. Nor was it 
all misfortune that was in store for those who vent- 
ured blindly in search of profitable gold-deposits ; for 
how could the knowledge be obtained without chance 
to open the door, or action to seize the prize under 
impossible conditions? 

California was now rapidly losing population. Men 
of all classes abandoned their occupations in the inte- 
rior, and followed the crowd to San Francisco. Money 
was borrowed at exorbitant rates of interest to bo 
advanced on goods for British Columbia. It was not 
strange that the first fair opportunity would be seized 
by the journals of San Francisco to stem the current 
by giving to the northern regions under the guise of 
the mistake of the Fraser mines, the worst possible 
name. The whole of California in April 1858 was in a 
ferment. Business in the interior was deranged, and in 
many places broken up. Hundreds too impatient to 
wait for the steamers mounted horses and hastened 
overland, especially from the northern counties of 
California, making the distance in eighteen days. 
While towns in the interior were being deserted, 



358 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

San Francisco derived the benefit of the influx and 
of the outfitting of the miners, and the shippers re- 
joiced at the prospects of the Eraser trade. Shrewd 
store-keepers in the mountain counties hurried down 
to estabhsh themselves in San Francisco/* 

During April and May, the rumors more or less 
fabulous of gold discoveries in the north continued 
to circulate throughout California, and Oregon and 
Washington territories. Vessels left San Francisco 
carrying three times the number allowed by law. John 
Nugent, special agent of the United States, estimated 
that in May, June, and July, twenty-three thousand 
persons went from San Francisco by sea, and about 
eight thousand more overland — safely thirty thousand 
or thirty-three thousand in all in the course of the 
season ; and that out of these there returned before 
January 1859 all but three thousand. ^^ None were 
too poor and none too rich to go. Young and old 
and even the decrepit. Some out of restlessness or 
curiosity; others for profit or prey. "In short," says 
Lundin Brown, "never in the history of migrations 
of men has there been seen such a rush, so sudden 
and so vast."2« 



^^ Cormvallis' a. El Dorado, 11-18. Says the Nevada Journal oi May 14, 
1858, editorially: 'The spirit of '49 is partially aroused, and quite a large 
number will probably leave the country in quest of adventure in the far 
north .... Nine years' experience has taught us never to be in a hurry to 
chase new and marvellous reports to tlieir source, ^ye have found it rarely 
pays.' C. C. Roberts, a correspondent of the Bulletin, from Grass Valley, 
June 7, 1858, says: ' The Eraser excitement had the effect to augment the diffi- 
culties experienced by the quartz-mining interest, by drawing away a great 
numljor of the underground hands, and by increasing the rate of wages, so 
that many of the mills and mines had closed; and it would inevitably, if the 
rise of wages continued, close the rest. ' 

^'^ Nuijent's BepL, 3'>th Cong., 2d Ses.i., H. Ex. Doc., 3, p. 3. 

^^ Brown s E.smy, 3, 4; CornwaUi^' N. LI Dorado, 11-13. Cue of the best' 
painted pictures of the time was published in the Overland Monthly of Decem- 
bar 18G9, by Mr Wright. The worm-eaten wharves of San Francisco trembled 
almost daily, he said, under the tread of the vast multitude that gathered to 
see the northern steamer leave. The crowded stages landing the people from 
the mining counties of California at Sacramento and Stockton; the spirit of 
speculation rampant at Victoria and Whatcom; the helpless and confused 
mass of humanity swayed hither and thither by each conflicting report from 
the gate of the Cascades in British Columbia; the towns of canvas at Victoria, 
Whatcom, Langley, Hope, and Yale; the upturned craft found among the 
islands of the beautiful Haro archipelago, constituting the only record of 



TilE GRAND RUSH. 359. 

The first load of four hundred and fifty adventurers 
left San Francisco on the steamer Commodore, on the 
20th of April 1858. Between April 20th and June 
9th, twenty-five hundred miners, mostly from the in- 
terior of California, liad taken passage by steamer from 
San Fi-ancisco; and it was estimated that five thou- 
sand more were at the same time collected in Puget 
Sound, on their Avay to the Fraser. Governor Doug- 
las, in a letter to the head-quarters of the Hudson's 
Bay Company in London, dated Victoria, April 27, 
1858, speaks of the arrival of the Commodore on the 
25th. The passengers were well provided wdth tools. 
Said Douglas : '' There seems to be no want of capital 
or intelligence among them. About sixty were Brit- 
ish subjects, sixty Americans, and the remainder Ger- 
mans, French, and Italians."^^ On the 27th, the 
Pacific Mail steamer Columbia landed eighty more 
passengers at Fort Townsend, all bound, says Doug- 
las, for the Couteau District. 

The Fraser Biver excitement was encouraged by 
the steamboat o\vners, who coined money as long as 
it lasted. At first the crowds that came to Victoria 
Avent from there to Whatcom, under the belief that 
the great town of the north would spring up on the 
Mainland. They brought plenty of money to invest 
in land and other speculations, as much as two millions 
of dollars being at one time deposited in Victoria. 
The only safe in the country was owned by the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, so that the money passed through 
the hands of Mr Finlayson, the treasurer of the com- 
pany. It was presented in sacks, which Finlayson 

many too impatient for inaction, who had been swamped in the sudden storms 
and treacherous tide-rips, reported by others who had wandered for weeks 
among tortuous passes, and at last returned to Victoria, not caring to venture 
across tlie (roorgian Ciulf; the toil against the rapid current of the Fraser 
by the bolder and stronger, towing t'^eir boats along the shore, climbing over 
fallen trees, creeping under hanging bushes, and becoming from sheer neces- 
sity almost amphibious; the mosquitoes; the ritlles and whirls of the un- 
known streafn, which carried them back half a day's journey, when they were 
obliged to cross — aU these matters and more are told as they can be told only 
by one who had seen. 

'■'^ Boui/kis, in CornwaUis' iV. El Doi-ado, 3G1. 



360 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

refused to receive unless they were sealed with the 
names of the owners, as it was impracticable to count 
the money. When any one wanted money, he w^ould 
take out his bag, get what he needed, and return it. 
Not an instance ever occurred of complaint, says Fin- 
lay son with pride, of supposed loss." To the staid 
and plodding officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
the advent of the thirty thousand "half-wild Califor- 
nians," distributing themselves broadcast over their 
possessions, caused a degree of uneasiness of mind 
amounting to a commotion. "The rough-and-tumble 
rascals," said McDonald, " had not come for nothing;" 
and their notions of meum and tuum did not appear 
to them to be very well defined. 

This army of gold-seekers that besieged Fort Vic- 
toria threatened the supremacy of the crown as well 
as the stability of the territorial claims of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company on the Pacific Coast. The miners, 
three thousand of whom arrived at Victoria in one 
day, encamped in tents around the fort. In regard to 
the general orderly character of the pilgrims, there is 
cumulative testimony from all sides, notwithstanding 
the fact that the jealousy and the unreasonable exac- 
tions of the Hudson's Bay Company, practically in 
charge of the government, met the strongest opposi- 
tion, and called forth the unqualified animadversions 
of the miners. In order to quiet the difficulties thus 
arising, and to remove the restrictions against the im- 
migration of Americans, John Nugent was finally sent 
to the country as commissioner and consular agent 
by the United States."^ The stringency of the laws 

^^ Fmlaijson's V. I. andN. W. Coast, MS., 56-60. 

^^ California must have been pretty nearly emptied of loafers and gamblers 
during the Eraser River excitement. ' Smithers ' was depicted as one of the 
typical cliaracters of the time by a sketch in the Mornhvj Call. He had come to 
California at an early period, and had wonderous tales to tell of '49 and '50, 
and of the times when he was a millionaire; but 'the great conflagration of 
1351 had done the business for him completely,' and he could no longer get 
trusted in San Francisco for a drink. A large number of the gamblers that • 
came to Victoria did not like the appearance of things on Vancouver Island, 
and crossing over, established themselves at Whatcom. When that town came 
to naught in consequence of the successful navigation of the Eraser by 
ers to Yale, they removed in a body to the latter place. 



AKRIVAL OF VESSELS. 361 

united with the general good sense of the miners had 
the effect to deter the many doubtful characters — 
gamblers, thieves, and swindlers — that flocked into 
the country in the hope of obtaining rich spoils from 
the industrious and unsuspicious, and force them to 
quit the field. Perhaps the scanty product of the 
Fraser River bars, in comparison with those of the 
American, the Yuba, and Feather rivers, had some- 
thing to do with their graceful yielding to the stern 
authority of Mr Justice Begbie. 

Nearly all the Californian emigration was landed 
at Victoria, in consequence of Governor Douglas re- 
fusing to grant permits and mining licenses elsewhere. 
A large quantity of shipping, both sail and steam, 
enlivened the aboriginal quiet of Victoria and Esqui- 
malt harbors. From the middle of April 1858 for 
several months, while the excitement was daily in- 
creasing, not only at Victoria but in San Francisco, 
the halcyon da^^s of '49 appeared to have come again, 
and fresh dreams of wealth floated through the minds 
of multitudes. In the fortnight between the 5th and 
20th of June, there arrived at Victoria from San 
Francisco the ships Georgina, a new craft under an old 
name, and the William Berry, the barks Gold Hunter ^ 
Adelaide, Live Yankee, and Madonna, the schooners 
GiuUetta, Kossuth, and Osprey, smd the sloop Curleic. 
Besides these, the steamers llepuhlic, Commodore, Pan- 
amd, Cortes, and Santa Cruz landed passengers and 
freight during the same fortnight, making in all a 
contribution of about six thousand souls within the 
period named. 

The return of the steamers to San Francisco was 
awaited by crowds impatient for news. Tlie Panama 
and Pacific had returned to San Francisco on the 
5tli and 8th of June, from which time there was no 
fresh intelligence from the mines until the 19th, when 
the Republic returned, several days earlier than was 
expected, amidst intense excitement along the water- 
front and at the hotels. When on the 22d, 23d, and 



362 THE GEEAT GOLD EXCITEMEXl. 

24tli of June the steamers RepuhVic, Oregon, and Com- 
modore sailed respectively, there were twenty other 
sailing vessel:? lying at the wharves announced for 
immediate despatch. Some of the smaller sailing 
vessels went to Fort Langley, stopping at Victoria 
only long enough to get the necessary permits. First- 
class passage by steamer was sixty-fixe dollars; steer- 
age passage thirty-five dollars; by sailing craft the 
rates were from twenty-five to sixty dollars. To the 
20th of June Cornwallis estimated that fourteen 
thousand eight hundred persons had embarked at San 
Francisco by steam and sail.-^ All that the adven- 
turers desired was to be landed as near as possible to 
the mining region on the Fraser, but the considera- 
tions which governed the shippers modified the gen- 
eral desire. 

Fort Victoria was the head-quarters of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, of the government of the country. Situ- 
ated on Vancouver Island, with sixty miles of inland sea 
to be traversed to the mouth of the Fraser, and eighty 
miles to Fort Langley, the entire immigration would 
have sought tlie Mainland for a landing. An Ameri- 
can port would have been preferred, other things being 
equal. As opposed to Victoria, Port Townsend was 
first chosen by the representatives of the Pacific Mail 
Company ; but that was not satisfactoiy to the miners, 
wdio found themselves left unnecessarily remote from 
their destination. Then Whatcom was made the 
objective point, being conveniently situated for a land 
route to the diggings. Dense forest, however, ob- 
structed the way, and a trail had to be cut, requiring 
both time and money. The Fraser itself was inac- 
cessible, it was thought, for ocean-vessels; or what 
was equivalent, the owners of vessels did not choose 
to incur the risk of going up to Langley. Above 
Langley it was not expected that river steamers 
could go far enough to be an object to the miners. 

^^ Andersons Xortlnvest Coast, "SIS., 277; Cornwallis' Xeiv LI Dorado, 
141-51 



I 



WHATCO:^! AND VICTORIA. 3G3 

Tlic general inquiry was for canoes from the most 
convenient port. Under the specious cover of Ameri- 
can patriotism, Whatcom obtained the ascendenc}'- ; 
Victoria being only called at to procure the official 
documents prescribed by Governor Douglas to admit 
the miners to the freedom of the country, which sanc- 
tion it was charged was granted only at Victoiia for 
the purpose of bringing business. But it is doubtful 
whether Victoria would have gained the ascendency 
so soon, but for another circumstance more potent 
than the government regulations. It was found that 
the Fraser could be navigated all the way to the dig- 
gings, so that the trail from Bellingham Bay, which 
was cut in order to avoid the navigation and landing 
from shipboard in British territory, was at once dis- 
carded. 

Steamers now began to run directly from Victoria 
to the mines, leaving Whatcom aside. So long as the 
miners were depend.ent entirely upon canoes, What- 
com had continued to hold its own under the prospect 
of the speedy opening of the pack-trail and proposed 
wagon-road. But the trail was not opened soon 
enough ; much less the wagon-road through the canon 
of the Fraser, which alone could have presented 
claims in competition with the lower Fraser and gulf 
of Georgia navigation. The mud-flats of Whatcom 
being objectionable, also, the annex called Sehome 
soon took the place of Whatcom, and the buildings 
of the town became tenantless with the departure of 
the loose population to Yale. Some of the longheads, 
as they were called, then went to Semiahmoo, and 
two paper towns were laid out on opposite sides of 
the bay; but the Fraser travel could not be beguiled 
over land to Semiahmoo merely because the distance 
was short. Whatcom was early in the field as a pro- 
spective town, as the earliest mining bcLnv the Fraser 
canon was carried on by people from Puget Sound, 
who went to the mines and sent out tlieir gold by 
wav of Whatcom. In March or the beginning of 



3G4 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT, 

April 1858, while the Fraser River was at its lowest 
stage, parties of Canadians and others from Puget 
Sound had managed to get up the river, and were 
working some of the richer bars below Fort Yale. 
Some of these even continued their operations beyond 
the forks of the Thompson. They made their way 
along the shores of Puget Sound in canoes. The cur- 
rent to the mines from Puget Sound did not follow 
the route by way of Vancouver Island until business 
of every sort was running in a well-established groove 
to Victoria. 

The first body of miners that struck out from Vic- 
toria in April crossed the gulf in skiffs, whale- 
boats, and canoes. Numbers of these were believed 
to have perished, as the craft employed were mostly 
makeshifts constructed by the miners themselves. 
At that time all American steamers were jealously 
excluded from the Fraser. Inadequate steamer com- 
munication was carried on by the Hudson's Bay 
Company. At length, Douglas, on the payment of a 
royalty for every trip, permitted American steamers to 
enter the river; and the Sea Bird, Surprise, Umatilla, 
Maria, Enterprise, and others began running, usually 
from Victoria to Langley and Hope. Their use, by 
the inflowing and outgoing miners, proved the death- 
blow to Whatcom. However, even after the steam- 
ers afforded abundant facilities, many of the miners, 
finding the twenty-dollar fare too high, continued to 
make their own boats at Victoria, and to navigate 
them to Yale. In July, nearly all the miners had 
left; the majority, so far, in boats built by themselves. 
One authority states that hundreds of them were 
never heard from after leaving Victoria, and were 
supposed to have been drowned in the tide-rips, or in 
crossing the water. ^^ If they escaped the dangers of 
the gulf, or the currents and counter-currents of the 

25 Waddingtons Fraser Mines, 5-10; TarhelVs Vic, MS., 2; Nugent's Bept. 
E,c. Doc. cxL, 35th Cong., M Sess., 2; Finlaysons V. I. and N. W. Coast, MS., 
56-60. Nugent says 'the freight per ton from Victoria to Hope, 160 miles, 
was §40, and from Hope to Yale, 20 miles, $20,' Nugent' s Kept., 4. 



ROAD -BUILDING. 365 

Haro archipelago, it was only to encounter the swift 
current of the Fraser, with its occasional sedgy bor- 
ders, and its whirls and rapids between Hope and 
Yale. Thus, over many a manly heart so lately filled 
with hope, rolled the waters of oblivion. By mid- 
summer, the miners had crowded all the bars of the 
Fraser as far up as the Thompson. They climbed 
back and forth over the cliffs above Yale, carrying 
their own supplies upon their backs. At length a 
petty Indian war broke out, which drove them all 
down to Yale.^^ The absorbing topic of the time was 
the solution of a problem calling for all the energies 
that were developed by the stirring days of the ex- 
citement — how to transport supplies to the front. 

It soon became obvious that it was necessary to 
have this done in the cheapest and most expedi- 
tious manner. Some returning miners were guided 
by Indians, from Lilloet through Harrison Lake and 
river, and over the Douglas portages, where a pack- 
road leading into the interior could be constructed at 
a comparatively moderate cost.^'^ In order to open a 
trail along this route Douglas hit upon the following 
expedient: There were five hundred miners at Vic- 
toria on their way to the mines. It was proposed 
that in consideration of a deposit of twenty-five dol- 
lars by each person accepting the terms, and an agree- 
ment to work upon the trail until it was finished, the 
Hudson's Bay Company should transport them to the 
point of commencement on Harrison River, feed them, 
and at the conclusion of the work furnish them there 
with supplies at Victoria prices, or return the money 
if desired. The length of trail to be opened, includ- 
ing the lakes, was seventy miles. No difficulty was 
experienced in getting the miners to accede to this 
proposition. The money was paid in, and the work 

^^ Mallandaine's First Victoria Directory, 14; Waddington's Fraser Mines, 
'ifl-A. 

^'Spence in VowtlVs B. C. Mines, MS., 27, asserts that it was the first 
route utilized for the transportation of freight by animals. Early doings of 
course are now ignored. 



366 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

executed under the arrangement. It was really a very 
pretty by -play between credit, cooperation, and labor. 
When the work was done, though they had given the 
company the use of twelve thousand five hundred dol- 
lars, and their labor, they all received their money back, 
their passage being a sufficient reward for their labor, 
while the company was left with a valuable piece of 
toll-road, worth much more than the transportation 
and provisions had cost them. Those who became 
tired of the bargain before the trail was completed 
disposed of their scrip to others for what they could 
get, and went their way rejoicing. Disagreements 
arose at the end in regard to the delivery of the sup- 
plies promised in lieu of the money deposits, the miners 
claimino; that the frei^fht should be delivered at the 
upper end of the seventy miles, while the company 
claimed the agreement required of them only to de- 
liver it at the lower end. This point was compromised 
satisfactorily to both parties by delivering it in the 
middle. Beans at the time were worth one and a half 
cents a pound at Victoria, five cents at Port Douglas, 
the lower end of the trail, and one dollar a pound at 
the upper end. 

Nearly all the provisions on the Eraser above the 
canon in the summer of 1858, with the exception of 
the little packed on the backs of the miners and 
Indians, was brought there from the upper Columbia 
by the half-breed traders of the Colville country. 
Between the gulf of Georgia and the interior pla- 
teau there were only trails, and in their competition 
for popular favor the partisans of each declared the 
other impracticable.^^ That from Whatcom striking 
the Fraser at Smess, twenty-five miles above Lang- 
ley, was subsequently used for local travel from Puget 
Sound. The movements from Oregon to the Fraser 
mines went east of the Cascade Mountains, striking 
the Fraser near the mouth of Thompson Biver. 
Though an effort was made in Minnesota, where the 

^* Overland from Minnesota to Fraser River, 45-7. 



FROM THE UXITED STATES. 367 

Fraser excitement was also felt, to inaugurate travel 
by way of St Paul and the Saskatchewan River, 
none but trappers and explorers of the hardier sort 
ventured the route till a later date, the current from 
the Atlantic States flowing through the established 
channels to Oregon and California. Two notable in- 
land expeditions from Oregon may be cited as ex- 
amples of numerous others. Owing to the dangers 
from hostile Indians it was necessary to organize and 
to travel in force. 

David McLaughlin's company made their rendez- 
vous at Walla AValla early in July 1858. In ten or 
twelve daj^s one hundred and sixty men were gath- 
ered, all well armed with revolvers, ninety rifles and 
twenty-five other heavy arms being in the party. 
They had about three hundred and fifty horses and 
mules. Before starting, Mr Wolfe, a trader from Col- 
ville, arrived at Walla Walla and informed them of 
the hostile attitude of the natives along the pro- 
posed route, advising a thorough militarj^ organiza- 
tion. Four divisions were accordingly formed and 
placed under the command of James ]\IcLaughlin, 
Ilambright, Wilson, and another. The Y/alla Wallas, 
Palouses, Okanagans, and other tribes were hostile. 
The party passed through the Grand Coulee to Okan- 
agan. On their way over the Columbia plains a 
German who lagged behind was seized by the sav- 
ages and killed. Two or three days' travel after 
crossing the Columbia near the boundary line on the 
east side of Okanagan River, the Vvdiole party was 
attacked by the Indians in force, posted on a hill be- 
hind rude fortifications on each side of the road where 
they had to ])ass through a canon. McLaughlin dis- 
covered an Indian's head peering over a rock before 
the firing began. The men took promptly to their 
work and fought till ni^ht. None of the animals 
stampeded, but were retired in good order with the 
trains to the plateau below. While the rillemen con- 
tinued after night- fall in possession of the ground 



368 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

facing the Indians, a detachment prepared rafts to 
cross the river, the intention being to flank the de- 
fences and formidable fastnesses which the Indians 
had evidently prepared for them. 

Hurley, Evans, and Rice, all three Californians, 
were killed, and seven others were wounded, but re- 
covered. In the night the Indians set fire to the 
grass, and the gold-hunters set counter-fires without 
either of them succeeding in burning the other out. 
Next morning the white men proceeded to bury their 
dead, and discovered that the Indians had abandoned 
their stronghold. It had about a hundred breast- 
works, each made to shelter one Indian, and was 
occupied at the time of the attack by eighty savages. 
Two or three days after, the party was again attacked 
on the west side of the Okanagan River. A hun- 
dred mounted warriors rode down upon them, trying 
to separate the company from their animals; their 
purpose was anticipated, and prevented. After some 
further trouble and parley, they made a peace with 
the hostile tribe, the Okaiiagans, and the gold-hunters 
continued their march without delay. Notwithstand- 
ing the peace assented to, inniiediately afterward sixty 
head of Wolfe's cattle w^ere stolen by the Indians, 
and a detachment of McLoughlin's men surprised 
two of them engaged in jerking the beef from the 
slaughtered cattle. They were taken along as prison- 
ers, but at this juncture Chief Trader McDonald 
from Fort Colville came up with a train bound for 
Hope, and at his request the Indians were discharged. 
The same Indians afterward robbed a Spanish packer 
who had been left in the rear attending to his animals, 
and the savao^es with hostile and thievinof intent 

o ..." 

continued to follow them to a point within three days' 
march of Thompson River. They came upon that 
stream twelve miles above its mouth. 

Joel Palmer and thirty-five others, among them 
P. H. Lewis, went to the Fraser mines from Port- 
land with wagons, also following the inside or plateau 



INTERIOR TRAFFIC. 369 

route. The company encamped at the Dalles, and 
departed thence in July, driving their own teams all 
the way through to the Thompson. There were 
nine teams, each consisting of three or four yoke of 
oxen, the majority of them belonging to Palmer. 
Four 'boys' from Yreka, California, were the coop- 
erative owners of one of the teams. Provisions con- 
stituted the cargo, three thousand pounds to the 
wagon. The route was by wa}" of Wallula and Okan- 
agan to Kamloop. 

Steamer loads came from California to Portland 
and fitted out at that place for the mside route. Com- ^ 

panics of four hundred and five hundred men accom- 
panied by pack-trains, moving more rapidly than was 
possible for the wagons without a road, overtook and 
passed Palmer's train on the way.^'' The latter, under 
Palmer's experienced generalship, found occasion to 
make use of all the arts of travel in the form of the 
organized semi-military expeditions developed in the 
Oregon emigrations of 1842-8. At the point of rocks 
twelve miles above Priest Papids, the country was 
found impracticable for three quarters of a mile on 
the east side of the river. Waoons and freisfht were 
accordingly conveyed around this in canoes. At 
Okanagan the Columbia was crossed in the same man- 
ner, the cattle swimming. Two canoes were lashed 
alongside and placed endwise to the bank;Hhe wagons 
were then rolled or lifted into them empty, and the 
freight was stowed in the bottom or in the wagon- 
beds, as was most convenient. Three wagons and 
their contents were taken over at one time in safety 
by four men, one each occupying the bow and stern in 
both canoes.^" 

When the expedition reached Okanagan Lake it was 

^^ McLnughlin's Ex., in Oregon Statesman, Sept. 28, 1858; Lewis' Conl Dui- 
coveries, MS., 13-15. 

^ Palmer, in Oregon Staie-fman, Fcl). 14, 1800. Palmer wrote a four-column 
article giving the results of his expetlitions of 1858 and 1859, ami making out 
that in carrying freight to the mines the route could compete with the roads 
tiieu existing along Fra^er and Harridou rivers. 
Hist. Brit. Col. 24 



370 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

found necessary to build rafts in order to pass some 
difficult forest-covered country, cut up by ravines. 
Wagons and freight were taken upon several large 
rafts, poled and towed along shore with ropes, while 
the cattle were driven, under the direction of ex- 
plorers, to a point where the country was more open. 
Palmer had a party of men in advance all the way, 
exploring and making a road, or cutting timber as far 
north, on his second trip in 1859, as Alexandria, and 
later to Lightnino^ Creek, where he established a 
trading-post and sold out his oxen for beef ^^ 

Douglas' frequent communications to the colonial 
office, touchinaf the o-old discoveries in British terri- 
tory, left the government prepared for action as soon 
as the news of the breaking-out of the Fraser excite- 
ment and the exodus to the north had reached 
England. On the 8th of July, Sir C. B. Lytton, 
secretary of state for the colonies, brought the matter 
before the house of commons in the form of a bill for 
the government of 'New Caledonia.' Lord Lytton 
in presenting this bill did justice to the subject in an 
able speech, pointing out the importance of the new 
gold-fields as a part of the British possessions in 
North America, and of the empire in its future com- 
mercial relations on the Pacific.^'^ One of the earliest 
communications of Douglas had raised the question 
of taking advantage of the gold excitement for reve- 
nue. Before the Fraser excitement had fairly begun, 
in December 1857, he had prescribed a monthly tax 
of ten shillings upon every miner, afterward increas- 
ing the amount to five dollars, though the country was 
not under his jurisdiction as governor of the colony 
of Vancouver Island, and the Hudson's Bay Company 
had no rights in the territory, beyond their license 
to trade. If the motive and the exceeding of his 
authority as the nearest representative of the crown 

'>^ Palmer s War/on Trains, MS., 55. 
'^'-Cornwallis Xew El Dorado, 11-18. 



DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 371 

were not approved or deemed a sufficient excuse in 
the premises, he wrote to Labouchere in the colonial 
department, it would be easy for Douglas on receiving 
the colonial secretary's reply to permit the miners' 
license to become a dead letter. But as the license 
and other similar acts in regard to the Mainland were 
afterw^ard continued in force, it would appear that the 
temporary assumption of authority by Douglas was 
overlooked, if not approved. 

Additional exactions of the same kind were im- 
posed upon the inflowing masses before the erection 
of the Mainland region into a colony. Besides the 
six and twelve dollars 'sufferance' for every open and 
decked boat or canoe that entered the mouth of Fraser 
River, collected by the gun-boat Satellite, the treasurer 
of the Hudson's Bay Company, Finlayson, who offi- 
ciated at the same time as customs officer and treasurer 
of the colony of Vancouver Island, exacted a ten per 
cent ad valorem tax upon the supplies of the miners, 
comprising goods of every kind that went to the 
mines.^^ 

Where domination was so autocratic and so reti- 
cent as that exercised by the fur-traders under the 
Douglas regime, the purest motives were not always 
ascribed to the Hudson's Bay Company for their acts. 
By the miners it was thought that the company was 
averse to their taking possession of the territory ; that 
they preferred to have the natives find the gold and 
bi'iiig it to them with their furs, receiving therefor 
goods at exorbitant prices. 

El wood Evans and John Nugent both appear to 
have had the idea that the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany officials knew of the existence of the gold in 
the valley of the Fraser for several years before the 
Fraser excitement; that they must have had some- 
thing to do with creating and exciting the rush, but 
that they judiciously held back till a certain time, 
and then unscrupulously fostered the excitement to 

^ Finlayson s V. I. and B. C, MS., 5G-G0. 



372 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEMENT, 

the utmost.^^ But it is not difficult to intei|:)ret 
the motives that governed their action under the 
progress of developments, without indorsing these 
clashing opinions, or attributing to them unworthy 
motives. Douglas had reason to fear the American 
invasion, for he had seen Oregon pass out of the pos- 
session of the company and of the crown by a similar 
peaceful invasion. 

That the company preferred, were it possible, to 
hold the Mainland with its furs and gold exclusive, 
there can be no doubt; that they resorted to dishonor- 
able measures Avhen they saw the inevitable upon 
them is not true. Like any other bloodless and mer- 
cenary association, when they saw their fur -field 
despoiled by invaders whose presence they were 
powerless to oppose, they turned to the best account 
they were able their facilities for transportation and 
trade, which was unquestionably their privilege. As 
I have before observed, I can but regard the officers 
and servants of the Hudson's Bay Company upon the 
Pacific Coast, in points of integrity and humanity, as 
far above the average corporation monopolist. 

In California it implied not merely the loss of popu- 
lation and revenue, but of business and of commercial 
supremacy. At first the reports were considered 
doubtful, and only a few of the most venturesome 
went to investigate for themselves; and when they 
were confirmed, sceptical writers still cited Gold 
Lake, Gold Bluff, Kern River, and all the other 
total or partial delusions of their day. When the 
news was received in a reliable form, and from persons 
well known in California, all agreeing that there was 
really much gold in the sands of the Fraser, and that 
it existed in extremely fine particles, though accom- 
panied by the warning that the high-water season 

^^ Evans' Fraser River Excitement, MS., and Nugent' s Rept. Ex. Doc. cxi., 
35th Cong., 2d Sess., both attribute a great deal to the manipulation of tha 
company. 



THE ORTHODOX THEORY. 373 

was just commencing, which would render the bars 
of the rivers, the only good ground so far known in- 
accessible for several months, every old miner in Cali- 
fornia understood the significance of the fact. The 
theory so well understood in every gold-mining 
country in the world, of fine gold necessarily coming 
from a coarse-gold region, furnished the plain, unvar- 
nished, and all-sufficient cause for the unparalleled 
st mpede. Adolpli Sutro at the time called attention 
to the fact that the inf )rmation received from Eraser 
River alone did not suffice to produce the extraor- 
dinary result; but that the miners had learned to 
place implicit confidence in the theory of fine gold, 
the fineness corresponding with the distance travelled, 
and that the bars of tlie Eraser were understood by 
them to be nothing else than the farthest tailings of 
a sluice, where only such particles were found as were 
minute enough to be carried away by the waters. It 
was concluded by many of the most intelligent miners 
and prospectors of California, that there must be an 
extensive gold-mining district in British Columbia, 
perhaps hundreds of miles above the bars yielding 
the fine gold.^^ 

I have already shown that to test this theory was 
not a matter of years, but the season rendered it im- 
possible at this time. 

For some time past attention had been directed to 
the Fuca Strait by geographers, but more particularl}^ 
to Puget Sound, by that portion of the Oregon emi- 

^ Sutro's Revkw of Fraser River and tlie Gold Prospects of Neio Caledonia, 
'\\\ S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 27, 1858. Finding the water higli over the bars, the 
miners hail pressed on to Yale and encountered other insurmountable obsta- 
cles, the great Fraser a foaming torrent hemmed in b}' perpendicular rocks on 
either side. The timid turned back and denounced the tlieory as fiction. 
Others waite<l through dreary montlis; but a daring few, with a fortnights or 
a month's provisions strapped on their backs, climbed the rocks and slopes of 
the Fraser canon seventy miles farther to La Fontaine, where they found 
good diggings, but only to prospect them before they were obliged to hurry 
back to avoid starvation. 'Fraser River,' says Sutro, 'has been put down as 
a humbug by the majority of the California people, and why ? Have they 
carried out their original intention to explore the country above ? No, they 
have not.' Comjiare Wrinht's Cariboo, hi Overland Monthly, Dec. ISG9, 524, 
for information of this motive. 



374 THE GREAT GOLD EXCITEjVIENT. 

gration which was imbued with commercial traditions 
or influenced by nautical antecedents. Under the act 
which initiated the Pacific Railway explorations by 
the engineer corps of the army between 1853 and 
1856, Governor Stephens of AVashington Territory 
led one of the best executed series of explorations 
over the line of the proposed Northern Pacific Rail- 
way, terminating on Puget Sound. Notwithstanding 
the existence of gold in California, it was believed 
by many that Puget Sound was to be the terminus 
of the great future trunk railway of the northern 
states.^® 

The immediate efiect of the gold excitement was to 
lay the foundations for the Canadian Pacific and North- 
ern Pacific railways as commercial enterprises, each 
of which had, however, to await the more permanent 
kinds of mining development before the superstructure 
could be properly carried forward. Evidently the 
final great value of the discovery of the new gold- 
fields in British Columbia to the colony, to the Do- 
minion of Canada, and to the Empire of Great Britain, 
consisted mainly in the crowds of adventurers that 
were attracted into the country, from whose energetic 
proceedings permanent developments were to follow 
in many ways. 

Communications for traffic and general intercourse 
thus sprang forward at a bound, and the country was 

^''In the midst of the Eraser excitement, California newspapers quoted 
Lieutenant Maury's opinion on the subject. The great telegraphic plateau 
on which the Atlantic cable was laid was reported by Maury to extend around 
the world, the Minnesota divide between the gulf and Arctic waters forming 
a portion of it. The whole country between Lake Superior and Puget Sound 
was claimed to be less barren and less rugged than the country south, and 
coal as well as timber was known to exist in abundance on Puget Sound. 
Maury showed that the course of a ship from China to San Francisco, ' until 
she gains the offings of the straits of Fuca, would be the same as though she 
were bound into Puget Sound or the Columbia River,' and that the nearest 
way from China, Japan, and the A:noor to the Mississippi Valley was by way 
of Puget Sound. Attention was also directed by Maury to the isotherms, and 
wind and ocean currents of the north-western Pacific coast. See Nevada 
Jonnml, June 11, 1858, and Letter to President of St Pmil Chamber of Com,' 
merce, Jan. 4, 1859, in Rawlins Confederation, N. A. Provinces, 217. 



POSSIBILITIES. 375 

transformed as by magic from staid savagery to pan- 
demonium. Agriculture, and shipping to carry away 
the products of the soil in exchange for the many 
returns of commerce, became a possibility for the 
great Northwest, and in virtue thereof Vancouver 
Island, commanding the north Pacific coast, was dis- 
tinctly outlined as the England of the Pacific. So 
far as could be seen into the immediate future, it 
then appeared superficially that only gold and silver 
were wealth. What varied experiences or revolutions 
this country would have to undergo before its wealth 
in the precious metals should be fairly realized, or its 
metals become precious in fact by the fulfilment ot 
their special and only precious function, the setting 
in motion of human industries, were at that time as 
undefined as the shadow of the moon. 



CHAPTER XXL 

DEATH OF THE MONOPOLY— THE COLONY OF BRITISH 
COLUMBIA ESTABLIS^IED. 

1857-1858. 

Shall the Charter be Renewed ? — Discn.ssiON of the Question in Par- 
liament — Referred to a Select Committee — "Who Think the Char- 
ter should not be Renewed — Gold as a Revolutionist — Douglas 
Stands by for Englajstd — Late Fur-factors — Dugald McTavish — 
William Charles — The Hudson's Bay Company's License of 
Exclusive Trade with the Natives of the Mainland Revoked — 
Repurchase of the Island of Vancouver by the Imperial Gov- 
ernment — Change of Company Organization — Canada Purchase;; 
Rupert Land and the Northwest Territory — Liberal and Hu- 
mane Policy of the Company in Regard to Gold- seekers and 
Speculators 

Nations die; worlds grow old and perish; and so, 
thank God, sooner or later must every monopoly. Xot 
that the honorable Hudson's Bay Company now 
fails, becomes defunct, or otherwise disappears. It 
is only that branch of the association which might 
well be labelled tj^ranny and despotism that is now 
doomed. The adventurers of England trading into 
Hudson's Bay, trading on and between three oceans, 
holding as a hunting-ground for wellnigh two cen- 
turies an area equal to all Europe, must now step 
down from the royal pedestal on which they were 
placed by Bupert and Charles, and become as any 
other adventurers trading in any other region. In a 
word, the company's exclusive license to trade, now 
expiring, is not to be renewed; the country between 
the Rocky Mountains and tlie sea is to be thrown 
open to settlers, and the Mainland is to be colonized 

(376) 



I 



THE EXPIKLNG CHARTER. 377 

and have spread over it the mother-wing even as hith- 
erto it has been extended over the Island. 

We have seen how in 1821, wiien after a rivalry 
which well nigh consummated the ruin of both, the 
Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies united their 
interests, parliament granted the new association the 
exclusive rii^ht to trade for furs in the reg^ion west of 
Kupert Land for twenty-one years, and how in 1838, 
four 3^ears before their term had expired, their license 
was renewed for another twenty-one years, which lat- 
ter term would expire in 1859. 

Three or four years before the expiration of the 
trade license under which they held control of the 
Mainland, the Hudson's Bay Company began manoeu- 
vring for continuance of power, and during the winter 
of 1856-7 the directors flatly asked the government 
for a renewal of their license. If they were to retire, 
they should know it; and if the imperial government 
was to take charge of affairs, they should have time in 
which to prepare for it. The claims of the company 
were then laid before the ministers, who referred the 
matter to parliament. 

On the 5th of February 1857, Mr Labouchere asked 
in the house of commons for the appointment of a 
select committee to consider the state of those British 
North American possessions which were under the 
administration of the Hudson's Bay Company, or over 
which they held license to trade. 

Labouchere said that although the extensive re- 
gions referred to were for the most part adapted only 
to fishing and fur-raising, yet, besides containing great 
mineral wealth, there were large districts fit for agri- 
culture, and for the support of industrial populations. 
Imperial policy, justice, and humanity alike prompted 
government action. Although by reason of long 
occupation under royal charter, their claim to Bupert 
Land might be deemed valid, it was not so with regard 
to the region west of the Bocky ^lountains, their 
tenure to that district being the result of a royal 



378 THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

license giving them exclusive trade with the natives, 
and this license would now soon expire. So far as he 
knew, the company had performed its obUgations to 
the government, and throughout their whole domain 
the twelve hundred servants of the company had 
treated the three hundred thousand savages under 
them with due regard to humanity. 

Mr Roebuck remarked that he did not like to see 
a country such as the United States grow so great as 
to become insolent, and dominate the rest of the 
world; therefore settlement should be encouraged in 
Canada in order to balance this power. Mr Adderley 
thought every one would anticipate with eagerness 
the expiration of the company's license which should 
open the whole country to settlement. If England 
did not do it, American squatting, and annexation to 
the United States, would be the result. The giving 
of Vancouver Idand to the fur-traders was the great- 
est blunder a colonial minister ever committed. For 
Nootka Sound Mr Pitt had risked a Spanish war. 
The country should be free from the grasp of the 
monopoly, he thought, at any hazard. 

Edward Elhce^ next rose, and remarked that the 

^ Edward EUice, member of parliament, and for half a century or more a 
prominent partner in the Northwest and Iludoon's Bay companies, in Li3 te:;- 
tiniony before the select committee, affected to regard colonial affairs with in- 
difference, and the government of colonies as detrimental rather than otherwise 
to the interest of fur companies. If Canada coveted the management of Red 
River affairs, he thought there would be no difiSculty in coming to terms with 
the Hudson's Bay Company. The company were then in possession of Van^ 
couver Island, but were very ready to give it \ip; if the government did not 
deem it advisable to avail itself of the services of the company, it had better 
assume the management itself. It was a wise move, he thought, on Lord 
Grey's part, particularly in an economical point of view, the granting of the 
Island to the company. In answer to the question, ' Do you think that the 
right of exclusive trade by the Hudson's Bay Company could be rendered com- 
patible Mith the territory being given to a colony?' Ellice replied: 'Why 
should it not be so? It is compatible with the government of this country, 
and it would be compatible with the government of a colony. I do not think 
that it should exist one hour longer than the colony, or the legislature or 
government of that country, thought it for their good. The Hudson's Bay 
Company have no claim to it; it is not like the Hudson's Bay territory. I 
may add that beyond the Hudson's Bay company being paid for their 
outlay, which payment thej'' are entitled to under the agreement with the 
crown, I do not think they have any claim upon the public on the west siile 
of the Rocky Mountains, otherwise than as you may think it for your interest 
to employ tliem,' House Commons Reyt., ZZ6, Up to this time the company 



PARLIAMEXTARY DISCUSSION. 379 

honorable gentleman knew nothing of what they were 
discussing, else they would know that northern North 
America was wholly unfavorable to colonization. 
Then, should the present benignant rule of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company be withdrawn, how would they 
govern, how would they hold the country? Throw it 
open to free-traders, and you would speedily see as bad 
a state of things as has ever obtained on the United 
States border; and surely the imperial money-vaults 
must be overloaded when statesmen are so eager to set 
up and ksep in motion civil and military machinery 
for the government of a wilderness of savages and 
wild beasts. On behalf of the directors he might say 
that the company were ready for the fullest investiga- 
tion and the fairest adjustment. 

For the five hundredth time in public, the history 
of the company was reviewed and their doings dis- 
cussed by Mr Gladstone, who favored investigation 
and equitable and amicable adjustment. Others fol- 
lowed in similar strain on one side and the other; 

hcul e::peii(led in bringing out settlers and coal-miners, and in performing 
the other obligations of their trust, according to their account, eighty 
thousand pounds. All was outlay; there was no return. Politically the 
Island was an interesting possession; its position was superb. Opportunity 
was there for investing money in improvements to an iinlimited extent. Rocks 
might be turned into palaces, forests into gilded temples, and the land and 
the water become alive with industry. But the wealth requisite for all this 
was not to be found in the Island. Like the mother country, it must have in- 
terest elsewhere to become great. ' The sooner the pul)lic reenter into pos- 
session, and the sooner they form establishments worthy of the Island, and 
worthy of this country, the better. From all accounts which we hear of it, it 
is a kind of England attached to the continent of America.' Ellke, in House 
Commons Jiept., 335. Either the company were now in realitj' becoming tired 
of their bargain in regard to the Island, or else, foreseeing they could hold it 
no longer, they pretended to be tired of it. But their actions did not always 
accord with their expressed sentiments. All that was to be made out of tliis 
colonization scheme they had made, some of them thought. And in a pecu- 
niary point for themselves they had done well. Tliere was profit for tlunn 
in connection with their other business, in carrying emigrants in their own 
vessel 5, provided there were any to carry, in manipulating laud sales, especially 
in setting aside the best part of the J.ilund for themselves, and in perlorming 
various little duties for the government. An account like this with the 
government was exceedingly convenient in many ways; it grew on their books 
easily and naturally, and assisted the company in carrying out its plans in 
many ways. But now all had been done tliat there was to do. The settle- 
ment had been begun, but the settlers were dissatislied. Tlie plan was in 
fact a failure. Clearly it was now to the interests of the company, so some 
of them argued, to give up the lolan 1 and get their money back. 



380 THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

after which the vote was taken, and the motion sus- 
tained.^ 

The governor-general of Canada was notified of the 
intention of government to institute this inquiry, in 
order that an opportunity might be afforded that 
colony of giving such information and advancing 
such opinions as they might deem proper. Accord- 
ingly Chief-justice Draper was commissioned by the 
government of Canada to watch proceedings. The 
legislative assembly of Canada likewise appointed 
a committee of their own to investigate these same 
affairs, a full report of which was laid before the par- 
liamentary committee. The law-officers of the crown 
were freely called upon from time to time during the 
investigation for their opinion respecting title and 
various points connected with the company's charter. 

After sitting for nearly six months, the prorogation 
of parliament occurring in the mean time, and sub- 
jecting twenty-four witnesses to the most searching 
examination, the committee found the territory over 
which the company exercised rights to be of three 
descriptions: the land held by charter, and called 
Rupert Land; the land held by license, called the 
Indian territory; and the land held by crown grant 
for purposes of colonization, which was Vancouver 
Island. The wishes of Canada, the committee said, 
to annex such territories as were available for settle- 
ment should be met. The Red Riverand Saskatchewan 
districts should be ceded to Canada. The connection of 
the Hudson's Bay Company with Vancouver Island 
should be terminated, and means provided for ex- 
tending the colony over the whole or any portion of 
the Mainland. Such portions of the Hudson's Bay 
Company's territories as were not required for settle- 
ment, it would be well to leave in the hands of the 
company with their present rights of exclusive trade 
with the natives.^ 

^See Hansard's Parliamentary Dehates, 8d ser., cxliv. 219—41; cxlv. 97; 
Levis Amuxhi of British Legislntio)), iv. 224-39. 

'^ The result of the labors of this committee is a folio volume of 5A1 pages, 



DEATH OF THE MOXOrOLY. 381 

Indeed, the company had no objections at this time 
to the government assuming control of the whole 
country, provided the license of exclusive trade with 
the Indians on the ^lainland was loft them. There 
was little danger of an immediate influx of settlers, 
unless some excitement should spring up like that 
which did in fact follow; so that if the expense and 
responsibility of protection could be thrown upon the 
government, while the profits of trade should be left 
exclusively with them, nothing would suit tiiem better. 

If gold should be found in any quantities on the 
]\Iainland, as it was even now talked about on the 
Island, that region would be lost to the fur-trader in 
any event. Even were the government willing, a 
reckless, promiscuous population would not long sub- 
mit to the arbitrary rule of a private corporation. All 
this the company foresaw, and shaped their policy ac- 
cordingly. 

And now suddenly in these primeval shades each 
man finds himself in a whirl of unrest. The cold 
and barren desolation of New Caledonia is all at once 
transformed into a field of glittering promise, of prom- 
ise so radiant as to draw innumeral^le human bats 
from every quarter into it. The position of Douglas 

entitled Report from the Select Committee on the Hudson's Bay Company, to- 
ijc'Iicr with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, 
and Index. Ordered by the Home of Commons to he Printed 31 July and 11 
A wpist 1S57. The committee consisted of nineteen persons, as follows: Henry 
LabouchcTC, chairman; Messrs Gladstone, Roebuck, Lowe, Grogan, Gregson, 
Fitzwilliam, Gurney, Herbert, Matheson, Blackburn, Christy, Kinnaird, 
EUice, Viscounts Goderich and Sandon, Sir John Pakington, and Lords Rus- 
sell and Stanley. The committee sat from the ISth of February to the 31st 
of July, and examined 24 persons, namely, John Ross, J. H. Lcfoy, John 
Rae, Sir George Simpson, Wdliam Kernaghan, C. W. W. Fitzwilliam, Alex- 
ander Is1)i.ster, G. 0. Corbett, Sir John Richardson, J. F. Crofton, Sir George 
Back, James Cooper, W. H. Draper, David Anderson, Joseph ALiynard, A. 
R. Roche, David Herd, John Miles, Joiin McLoughlin, Richard Blanshard, 
William Cal.lwell, Richard King, James Tennant, and Edward EUice. Tiiese 
gentlemen were all either experts in Hudson's Bay Company atiairs, or had 
been in some way connected with the company. Some of them were accident- 
ally in London at the time, some were there by appointment, and some were 
permanent residents of England. Tliere were among them tliose both in favor 
of a continuance of the license system and those opposed to it. A large 
mass of valuable e\-idcnce was drawn from thejc witnesses, of whicli I have 
made free use in WTiting this history. 



382 THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

becomes an exceedingly important one. The north- 
west fur-fields seem doomed. Beside this tempest, 
the occuj^ation of Oregon was summer quiet. What 
shall the governor say to these panting new-comers; 
what shall the chief factor do? The company, with 
the license of trade as its only weapon, cannot hold at 
bay the hungry thirty thousand. They must be per- 
mitted ingress, else they will obtain it without per- 
mission; they must be overawed and governed, else 
they will riot in lawlessness. Months must elapse 
before action here can be directed by imperial powers, 
and meanwhile to hesitate is to be lost. 

In this emergency, as he is the chief and almost 
sole representative of the British crown on the North- 
west Coast, Douglas determines to act for his govern- 
ment in matters pertaining to the Mainland, as best 
he may, until definite instructions reach him. He 
will levy contributions for the benefit of his govern- 
ment on those entering the domain for its treasures, 
and maintain order among the uncouth comers to the 
best of his ability. 

As from the depths of primeval slumber affairs now 
awake to the wildest activity. There is no further 
need of anxiety over the absence of colonists. Who 
would have thought as the company were bringing 
out here a farmer and there a coal-miner, religiously 
entering all expenses in the colonization account to 
be presented to the crown on that fearful day of reck- 
oning, to see so soon these thirty thousand thus madly 
pressing forward, well nigh burying both company and 
crown beneath their too lieavy presence? 

Head of the Hudson's Bay Company affairs on the 
Pacific coast, after the retirement of Douglas, was 
Dugald McTavish, chief factor in charge, with Tolmie 
and Finlayson as associates, the three comprising the 
board of management. To the succeeding manager at 
Victoria, Mr William Charles, I am indebted for 
many favors. In ransacking for me the company's 



THE NAME. "83 

archives, in bringing from distant posts the fort jour- 
nals, and in the generous sympathy he has ever ex- 
tended to my work, he has won my lasting gratitude.* 

When the investigation of the attitude and conduct 
of the company was tirst approached, the question with 
the imperial government was whether the exclusive 
license to trade with the natives of the Mainland 
should be revoked at the expiration of the term 
granted the company for the colonization of Van- 
couver Island. The publication of the gold discovery, 
and the influx of population, however, put an entirely 
different aspect upon affairs. The fur-trade in its 
ancient proportions was at an end, and the prevention 
of demoralization and disorder was as essential to the 
companj^ as to the crown. It was better on both 
sides that all exclusive rights of the monopoly on the 
Mainland should at once and forever cease. 

Hence on the 2d of August 1858 parhament passed 
an act to provide for the government of British Co- 
lumbia, by which name hereafter should be designated 
the territories between the United States frontier on 
the south and Simpson River, now Nass Kiver, and 
the Finlay branch of Peace River on the north, and 
between the Rocky Mountain summit and the sea, in- 
cluding the Queen Charlotte and all other adjacent 
islands, except Vancouver Island, and investing the 
queen, by order in council, with power to appoint a 
governor, provide for the administration of justice, 

* Dugald McTavish was senior member of the boaa-d of management from 
1859 till November 1863, when he was called to England. He was a nephew 
of Jolm George McTavish, and brother of William McTavish, who, prior to 
the transfer of the north-west territory to the dominion government, was 
governor of Hudson's Bay Company aflairs at Red River. Dugald McTavish 
came to the Columbia in 1840, and was stationed at different times at Fort 
Vancouver, the Hawaiian Islands, and Verba Buena. He died in his bathing- 
room in Montreal, about 1873. He 'was a bachelor who could at any time 
start upon a journey at a half -hour's notice. An excellent accountant, an 
ofSce man, and had long been manager of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs 
at the Sandwich Islands. He was a clear-headed, able man, small, stout, 
compactly built, large head, large perceptive organs, dark complexion, large 
light eyes, a very practical man, not much imagination about him. Sold out 
Yerba Buena for a song before the gold excitement, as agent for the company. ' 
Tolmie's /list. Puget Sound, MS., 51. See also Anderson's Northwest Coast, 
MS., 82-3. 



3S4 THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLmiBIA. 

make laws, and establish a local legislature. One 
month later the license of exclusive trade granted the 
Hudson's Bay Company for twenty-one years from 
the 30th of May 1838, with right of revocation re- 
served, in so far as it covered the territories com- 
prising the colony of British Columbia was revoked. 
James Douglas was appointed governor of British 
Columbia, his commission for Vancouver Island being 
renewed. 

This is the last of the great monopoly as such. There 
is a vast mercantile machine in fair running order 
which still offered great advantages to the old associa- 
tion, but there are here no more exclusive privileges 
for them. Their milhon or two of square miles of 
domain, with their several hundreds of pacified nations, 
are now free, nominally and actually open to any 
others of the British nation for purposes of hunting, 
trading, or colonizing on the same terms as at present 
enjoyed by the late monopolists. But for some years 
in certain back parts of this region, such is the in- 
fluence exercised by the company upon the natives, 
such the advantages of their established posts, their 
knowledge of the country, their facilities for commu- 
nication, that this abrogation of their former rights 
makes but little difference and is but little felt. Com- 
petitors sometimes enter the field, but almost as often 
withdraw baffled. In the more proximate precincts, 
however, in mining and agricultural settlements, and 
about some of the northern seaports, Avhere inter- 
lopers and squatters now begin in a restricted way 
to plant themselves, their autocratic rule rapidly de- 
clines. By law they are now simply subjects of 
Great Britain, possessing no more rights than other 
subjects. 

A letter was directed to Governor Douglas by John 
Work and Dugald McTavish, chief factors, under date 
of November 24, 1858, calling the governor's atten- 
tion to an accompanying list of claims, consisting of 
fourteen forts, including New Fort Langley, with the 



. GOVERNMENT TAKES VANCOUVER ISLAND. 3S5 

surrounding lands, asking that the same might bo in 
due time confirmed to them by her majesty's govern- 
ment. 

With the expiration of the term of the company's 
exckisive Hcense to trade with the natives of the 
Mainland, the imperial government repurchased the 
company's rights in the Island of Vancouver for 
£57,500, the last instalment of which was paid the 
6th of October 1862. An indenture of relinquishment 
of rights was executed on the 3d of April 1867, the 
company retaining, besides the fort property, certain 
town lots and farming lands amounting to several 
thousand acres. 

By 1863 the Hudson's Bay Company's stations in 
British Columbia were reduced to thirteen, as follows : 
Fort Simpson, W. H. McNeill in charge; Fort 
Langley, W. H. Newton; Fort Hope, W. Charles; 
Fort Yale, O. Allard ; Thompson River, J. W. McKay; 
Alexandria, William Manson; Fort George, Thomas 
Charles; Fort- St James, Peter Ogden; McLeod 
Lake, Ferdinand McKenzie; Connolly Lake, William 
Tod; Fraser Lake, J. Moberly; Fort Babine, Gavin 
Hamilton; Fort Shepherd, A. McDonald. Among 
the above traders are many names long familiar to us, 
but which at this day belong mostl}^ to the sons of 
those we first knew. In Fort Victoria and other posts 
on Vancouver Island the amount invested in 1856 was 
£75,000. 

In 1871 the organization of the company was 
changed; there were more factors and traders and 
fewer clerks, and lessened operations and expenses. 
In fact the association now partook more of the nature 
of a copartnership than of a corporation. Meanwhile, 
Canada purchased the company's right to Bupert 
Land and the Northwest Territory, and out of the 
purchase made the province of Manitoba. 

During the incipient stages of the government the 
Hudson's Bay Company were of far more use to the 
government than the government was to them. "At 

Hist. Brit. Col. 25 



386 THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

this moment," writes Douglas to Lytton the 2Gth 
October 1858, ''I am making use of the Hudson's 
Bay Company's estabhshments for every pubHc office, 
and to their servants, for want of other means, I com- 
mit in perfect confidence the custody of the pubhc 
money." 

It was but human nature for the foreign rabble, 
gold -hunters from California and elsewhere, to cry 
down the Hudson's Bay Company, cursing it as an 
all-devouring monopoly, and hokling up the fairest 
transactions as atrocious tyrannies. 

How ignorant and unreasonable men are! Had 
they not been blinded by wrath and stupidity these 
wise ones might have seen that now for the first 
time on the Northwest Coast, the Hudson's Bay 
Company had ceased to be a monopoly. It is but 
fair to say that in this emergency the company 
behaved liberally, nobly. Never at any time did 
they seem to desire to take unfair advantage of the 
necessities of others, but employed their power and 
position to keep the prices of supplies within reason- 
able bounds. 

Undoubtedly they reaped a rich harvest, as was 
their right. Their system of trade was attended by 
large accumulations of merchandise, a year's supply 
or more being kept always in store against emergency. 
When they saw the incoming multitudes they replen- 
ished their forts from their abundant resources. Know- 
ing the country, and being provided with means of 
transportation, they were assuredly in a condition to 
compete with any. But the Scotchmen were slow 
and careful by nature, and it was against fur-hunt- 
ing tradition to advance prices at once five or ten 
fold. And the only way the hot speculators, who 
Yv^ere the loudest in their denunciations of the com- 
pany, could carry prices to the desired height was 
first to exhaust the company's supply by buying it, 
and so control the market for the season, which was 
in many instances done. Douglas even went so far 



POSITION OF DOUGLAS. 387 

as to refuse permits to steamboats charging exor- 
bitant freights.^ 

It could scarcely be expected otherwise than that 
Douglas and the company would eventually quarrel. 
The monopolists were grasping upon principle, inordi- 
nately grasping, for had they not before this been fre- 
quently dissatisfied with the half of North America? 
They had quarrelled with McLoughlin, their best man 
on the Northwest Coast, quarrelled with him because 
of his innate nobility and manhood, which could not 
descend to the plane of their mercenary abasement; 
and now they quarrelled with their second best man, 
because he could not perform impossibilities, because 
he would not risk his position and popularity with 
the imperial government. He had been made gov- 
ernor of two colonies, with a double salary. Lytton 
had praised him, though he had early warned him 
not to allow the fur-traders to get the better of him; 
and he would not give him as much of the mother's 
money as he would like. But Douglas as usual held 
fast to the stronger; as in the troubles between his 
old friend McLoughlin and the company he had stood 
by the company, so now in the disagreements between 
the company and the government regarding the lands 
claimed round the forts, and expenses of colonizing 
Vancouver Island, Douglas stood b}^ the government. 
He stood by the government because, first, it was 
right, and secondly, no fur-trader could knight him. 

^For revocation of license see B. C. Acts and Ordinances, 1858. 'The 
company had obtained a charter for Vancouver Island on condition of pro- 
moting its colonization ; but it being evident that they were unable or un- 
willing to do this the license was withdrawn, compensation being made them 
for the amount they had expended in the attempt, amounting in all to £1G0,- 
000.' Br'Uhih Aorth Am., 2oi. This writer is somcwliat confused in his facts. 
See also Ohjmpia Club Convs., MS., 19, 20; Deans' Settlement, T. /., MS., 5 ; 
Tachi's Nortlace«t, G3; Waddhigton's Fraser Mines 2G-7; Howard and Bar- 
netCs Dir., 18G3, 144; U. S. Ev., H. B. Co. Claims, 78: Fmlayson's V. I., 
MS., 103; Tarhell's Victoria, MS., 4; Dowjlas' Private Papers, MS., 1st ser. 
90-108. A copy of the relinquishment of rights may be found in Lanijci-in's 
liept., 237-40. For discussions of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs in the 
colonies see Victoria Gazette, July 7, Aug. 31, Sept. 2-5, and Oct. 5, 1S5S; and 
for discussions in parliament see Hansard's Par. Deb., cxlviii. 126G-9, 1308; 
cxlix. 1494; cU. 1788-1844; clii. 1G7G-7; clxvii. 497-9, 1404^12. 



CHAPTEH XXII. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

1858-186.3. 

Authority at Victoria Disregarded by the First Comers — Douglas 
Looks into Affairs — ^What the Natives Think of It — Douglas as 
Law and Magistrate Maker — Indian Wars — Overtures of the 
Imperial Government to Douglas — Revenue — Loan — Public Lands 
— Miners' License — The British Cry Economy — Putting Things in 
Order — ^The Unauthorized Acts of Douglas Legalized — Arrfval 
OF British Vessels of War — Men of Authority Appear — The United 
States Represented — Inauguration of the Governor at Langley^ 
The Moody-McGowan Affray — New Westminster Founded — Offi- 
cers OF the New Government — Smu -^gling. 

In the beginning of May 1858, information reached 
the factor-governor of Vancouver Island that swarms 
of small craft from the United States shores, laden 
with passengers, arms, and merchandise, were enter- 
ing Fraser River in violation of her majesty's customs 
laws, and to the damage of the honorable Hudson's 
Bay Company. Wherefore, on the 8th of this month 
he issued a proclamation warning all persons that any 
vessels found in British northwest waters after four- 
teen days, not having a license from the Hudson's 
Bay Company and a sufferance from the customs offi- 
cer at Victoria, should be declared forfeited, and he 
called on Captain Prevost of H. M. S. Satellite for 
men sufficient to enforce the measures proclaimed. 

Then the factor-governor proposed to the agents of 
the Pacific Mail Steamship Company that they should 
place steamers on the route; carry Hudson's Bay 
Company's goods into Fraser Biver, and no others; 
carry no passengers except such as had a gold-mining 



COMMERCIAL MEASURES. 3S9 

license and permit from the Vancouver Island govern- 
ment and compensate the Hudson's Bay Company by 
the payment of two dollars for each passenger carried 
— if so the Pacific Mail Company might monopolize 
the traffic for one year. It was certainly very pret- 
tily arranged, and no wonder Douglas hoped, in 
writing to Lord Stanlej^ the 19th of May, "from its 
so thoroughly protecting every interest connected 
with the country," that it would meet his approval. 

The factor-governor would do this for his company 
and his country if he could; for he was now con- 
vinced that it was impossible to keep closed the gold- 
fields against foreigners, and there remained as alterna- 
tives whether they should enter and help themselves 
free of duty, or be made to pay for the privilege. 

Although invested with no specific authority to act 
for the imperial government upon the Mainland, 
James Douglas was the man to whom all looked, 
both in England and in America, as the one to as- 
sume control of affairs in the present emergency. As 
governor of Vancouver Island he was the nearest to 
Fraser River of any representative of the queen, and 
as chief fur-factor he had exclusive right of access for 
the purpose of trading with the natives. It was but 
natural and right, therefore, that he should regard 
the interests of his sovereign in the premises, as well 
as those of his company. 

With the orimnatinp- and executing? of much that 
was wise, and which permanently remained, there is 
little wonder that he fell into some errors. For exam- 
ple, in his declaration that no goods should be carried 
to the Mainland* except by or for the Hudson's Bay 
Company, and that no shipping, save the company's 
vessels or those sailing under the company's permis- 
sion, should carry passengers thither, he somewhat 
overshot the mark ; he forgot that it was only exclu- 
sive trade with the natives that his company could 
claim, and that so long as strangers did not so traffic, 
their right was as full and free to go anywhere and 



390 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

take whatever they should please as was that of the 
fur-traders. 

Very sound in many matters, however, was the 
practical mind of the factor-governor. He knew he 
should be safe enough in asserting the dominion of 
the crown over the gold-fields, in declaring all lands 
and minerals the property of the government in fee ; 
thouofh what kind of ria^hteous robbery that should 
be, others besides savagfes miofht wonder. For where 
was the European sovereign who ever yet had taken 
offence at the assertion of his rights to American 
lands or gold, by whomsoever made"? 

He stationed the Satellite at the mouth of Fraser 
Kiver with revenue officers on board to collect toll 
from those entering the territory; he called the 
Plumper to assist in enforcing his regulations, and 
employed the company's vessel, the Otter, in the gov- 
ernment service; and he notified the fur-traders at 
the several posts along the boundary to watch inroads 
in that direction, thouo^h in all this he was wroncf, for 
he had no right to enforce a tax for entering the 
country; any one might enter, only, until the com- 
pany's exclusive license should be annulled, none 
might trade with the natives; and as for the license 
duty which he saw fit to impose on miners, that could 
be legally collected from those who actually did mine, 
and not from those who simply entered the domain. 
But to govern this rabble, so he argued, would cost 
money, and the rabble themselves must pay the 
charge ; at all events, he would try it, though, as a 
matter of fact, he was soon checked in this proceeding. 

Early in the season Governor Douglas went over 
to the Mamland to see for himself the workings of 
this wonder. Ever alive to the maintenance of peace- 
ful relations with the natives, he made that matter his 
special care. And he acted none too soon; for how 
could this uncouth, obstreperous element from the 
purlieus of civilization be turned into quiet aboriginal 



ATTITUDE OF THE NATIVES. 391 

huntinof-ofrounds without collision with the natural 
lords of the domain ? 

The simple savages believed the gold their own; 
they were not versed in the laws of Christian nations 
that made might right. In their own crude w^ay, they 
were well aware that they must defend their domain, 
else their neighbors would take it. But this was 
savagism, in which were no betterments inculcatir.g 
precepts of love and honor and happy future reward 
conjointly wdth rum and strange diseases. The fur- 
traders had taught the natives to regard them as 
friends who had come among them to do them good, 
to bring them blankets, and guns to kill the deer, 
that thereby they might the more comfortably pro- 
vide for their families They paid for what they got, 
and dealt justly with them; so that they had come to 
regard the Hudson's Bay Company as their friends 
and allies. With regard to strangers it was quite 
different. 

Those who came into the country by the route east 
of the mountains struck the Eraser at two points, 
namely, Lytton and the Fountain. There they began 
to dig for gold without a license, and there Douglas 
found them, and made them pay.^ The natives knew 
and cared nothing for any license imposed by others ; 
it was they who must have pay for their gold, or for 
their sticks or stones sliould foreigners desire such ar- 
ticles, even as they had always received pay for their 
furs, and if white men would not treat them fairly i:i 
the matter, they would fight for it. 

]\Iean while Douglas ascends the river in the Otter 
with the Satellite's launch and gig in tow. At Fort 
Langley, where it was thought probable might be 

-Talmer, in the Oregon Statesman, Feb. U, 18G0, cliargea upon Douglas the 
motive of securing to his company the traffic which -would accrue by forcing 
the foreign mining population, so" far as possible, to enter through the front 
gate, namely, liy way of Victoria, rather than of obtaining revenue for the 
government. In this, however, I must differ from him. I find nothing in 
the conduct of Douglas to warrant the suspicion of any desire on h'n part to 
favor unjustly either the company or the government one against the other. 
See P.:pcrfi B. C, pt. i. 1-15 et seq. 



392 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

the Mainland metropolis, he finds speculators seizing 
lands and staking out lots.^ Sixteen unlicensed canoes 
are there, which he takes into custody, but releases 
them, and grants passes on the payment of five dol- 
lars for each canoe. The owners of certain merchan- 
dise for trade, found there, fare worse, their goods 
being seized and held as contraband. With a warn- 
ing to the squatters against their illegal and fruitless 
proceedings, he continues his journey toward Fort 
Hope on the 27th of May, stopping frequently to 
converse with the excited people who pass and repass 
him on the way.^ 

Letters are received from Mr Walker, in charge at 
Fort Hope, saying "that Indians are getting plenty 
of gold, and trade with the Americans. Indian wages 
are from three to four dollars a day. Letters from 
Fort Yale dated 18th inst. state that there are miners 
working two miles below Fort Yale, who are making 
on an average one and a half ounces a day each man. 
The place is named Hill Bar, and employs eighty 
Indians and thirty white men. Pierre Maquais has 
built a log-house and store below Fort Yale, and 
another store about five miles beyond the fort. York 
lias put up a log boarding-house a short distance 
beyond the fort." Thus the fur-trade is forever 
ruined, the natives themselves having caught the 
gold infection as badly as others. 

Before the queen's authority reaches them, after 
the old California fashion the miners of Hill Bar 
inaugurate self-government. On the 21st of May are 
posted laws regulating mining claims on that bar. A 
claim consists of twenty-five feet frontage; one man 

2 * Several applications for x^reemptions of laud rights were made by par- 
ties desirous of settling on Eraser River. Refused to entertain the said ap- 
plications for want of authority, 'ihink we otight immediately to commence 
the sale of land, for if we refuse to make sales, people will squat on every 
part of the country, and there will be a great difficulty in ejecting them.' 
Diat-y of Gold Dkcovery on Fraser Biver, in Douglas' Private Papers, MS., 
Ist ser. 90. James H. Ray staked off 1,200 acres, and began selling lots.. 
Victoria Gazette, Sept. 14, 1858. 

^ He is much interested in returns from the mines, and his diary is fuU of 
statistics on that subject. 



EXPEDITION OF DOUGLAS. 393 

can hold two claims, one by preemption and one by 
purchase, provided he works both; any white man 
caught stealing, or molesting Indians, shall be punished 
as a committee of the miners shall direct; he who sells 
or gives spirits to the natives shall for the first offence 
pay one hundred dollars, and for the second offence 
shall be driven from the bar. For mutual safety a 
captain and two lieutenants are elected and endowed 
with power absolute. And of this first meeting of 
law-makers thereabout, P. H. Furness is president, 
and George W. Tennent secretary. 

Arriving at Fort Hope on the 29th, Douglas makes 
his head-quarters there. Owing to the mineral dis- 
coveries in this vicinity, Hope is now the most impor- 
tant place on the Mainland, and serves for present 
and practical purposes as the capital of the country. 
It is here the queen's representative sets up his little 
government, and publishes a plan for establishing 
order and administering justice on Fraser River. 

Douglas now calls at the several mining-camps in 
the vicinity. Gold is everywhere plentiful; more 
plentiful the miners think than formerly in California; 
strange some one should not have found it before. 
Provisions are scarce ; pork, coffee, and flour each 
one dollar a pound, and that with the fur-trading 
posts so near. 

At Fort Yale he meets a number of chiefs. Copals 
of Spuzzum, Tellatella Quatza of the falls, and Lay- 
kootum of Sposun, and converses with them upon 
the strange destiny so suddenly falling upon their 
country. To keep any of his men he is obliged to 
raise their wages ten pounds per annum, but where 
this sum could be dug out of the ground in a single 
day, the increase of wages proved a temptation only 
to tlie more stolidly virtuous. As revenue-officer 
for the district of Yale he appoints an Englishman 
mining there named Richard Hicks, with a salary of 
£40 a year, to be paid out of the revenue of the 
country. 



394 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

At Hill Bar, besides creating George Perrier, a 
British subject, justice of the peace, he appointed 
Indian magistrates, who were to bring to justice any 
members of their tribes charged with offences. For 
this atom of authority every chief was ready to sub- 
scribe himself a slave. 

Other things were also talked about at this camp at 
Hill Bar. The natives were now threatening to sweep 
the country of the white men, whose presence became 
every day to them more distasteful. Bands were 
arming at various points, and no small tumult had 
been raised at this bar. Douglas called up the sav- 
ages and lectured them roundly; to the white men he 
talked as plainly; then he went his way hoping all 
would be well. 

But all was not well. Within a fortnight a hun- 
dred natives appeared at Bobinson Bar, armed, to 
fight the eighty white men there. Some half-breeds, 
who felt themselves aggrieved in the settlement by 
the miners of a dispute about a claim, retired in 
wrath, and told the Indians that the white men had 
prohibited all but themselves from working there. 
When they were assured to the contrary, they laid 
down their weapons and went to work beside the 
white men in apparent peace; but the stripped and 
headless bodies of prospectors and straggling miners 
that came floating down the Fraser, told of the in- 
auguration of a new era in British Columbia society.* 

The Oregonians and Californians who came to the 
mines by the plateau route in July encountered the 
alternative of returning, or fighting their way through 
the hostile tribes on the Okanagan,^ while the Hud- 
son Bay traders from Colville were moving through 
the same country and encountering the same bodies 

^Victoria Gazette, July 29, 1858; Papers B. C, pt. i. IG; GoocVs B. C, 
MS., 57-8. 

^Mr Tucker, formerly of Tehama, California, at Yale Aug. 17th, reported 
that he had left the Dalles with a party of 160 men and 400 animals, and 
that they had a severe fight with the Indians near Fort Okanagan, three 
whites being killed and six wounded before the Indians were beaten off. Vic- 
toria Gazette, Aug. 24th, 1858. 



INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 395 

of Indians unmolested.'' In the canon of the Fraser, 
disputes between white and red frequently arose about 
canoe transportation and mining-ground, and in con- 
sequence of the scarcity of the means of subsistence. 
The strife led to retaliations, and there came a time 
when, through evil counsels, possibly derived by 
affiliation from the plateau, it appears to have been 
decided u])on by the Indians to forcibly arrest the 
advance of the miners above the cauon. Demonstra- 
tions in force had been made by them on several occa- 
sions, but open hostilities were prevented for some 
time through the personal intervention and influence 
of Governor Douglas, with miners as well as Indians. 
Finally, about the 7th of August 1858, two French- 
men were killed on the trail above the Big Canon, and 
when the news reached Yale, a party of forty miners 
organized immediately, under Captain Rouse, and left 
with packs on their backs to force a passage to the 
forks. At Boston Bar they were induced to com- 
bine with the miners who had gathered there to the 
number of one hundred and fifty. On August 14th, 
the hostile Indians were encountered near the head of 
Big Canon, and a three hours' fight ensued, w^herein 
seven braves were killed. All the Indians in this 
part of the canon, whether hostile or peaceable, were 
thereupon driven out, and the company returned to 
Yale.' 

" It does not follow that the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company coun- 
tenanced the liostile attitude of the Indians, nor wore they suspected of doing 
so. On the contrary, it was through tlieir intiucnce that an Indian war was 
avoided on the British side of the houndary line. On the American side, 
severe engagements took place hetweeu Colonel Steptoe and the Indiiins of the 
upper Coluinhia, who were actuated by the feeling that the Americans, being 
settlers, and not merely traders, should be opposed, and prevented from 
occupying the country. 

'' It is evident that the Indians were not prepared for a commencement of 
general hostilities at this time. Their chastisement had been hastened by the 
overt acts of a few thieving and lighting braves, wlio, relying on the general 
disaffection among the Indians, had iniposed upon the miners to a degree tliat 
became unbearable. Three accounts were published of tlie expedition after- 
ward, varj'ing somewhat in details. One announced the return of tlie last of 
the rirte company, on the 19th, bringing in as prisoner the chief Copals. Smith, 
the expressman, attributed the immediate cinsc of the fight near Boston Bar 
to a robbery committed on an Irishman at Spuzzum, and he reported that 
ten Indians, one white man, and a white woman, from Hill's Bar, were killed. 



396 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

Meanwhile the miners came flocking into Yale from 
the surrounding camps, and on August 17th over two 
thousand attended a meeting to consider the manner 
of dealing with the Indians The majority were in 
favor of a demonstration in force, partially to overawe 
the renegades in the camps of the well-disposed Ind- 
ians, but mainly to reopen communications, to exact 
assurances of good behavior by every effective peace- 
able means, and to chastise such bands as they might 
encounter which could not be dealt with in any other 
manner. This policy found expression simply by the 
election of its representative, H. M. Snyder, to a cap- 
taincy, and by the enrolment, under his command, 
on the 17th and 18th, of the largest number of men. 
A minority were in favor of teaching the Indians a 
severe lesson of the sort just administered by Captain 
Rouse ; and for their commander they elected Captain 
Graham. 

Over one hundred and fifty men were enrolled, 
three fourths under the leadership of Snyder, and of 
his aid. Captain John Centras, who represented the 
French Canadians. Without deciding upon a plan of 
campaign, the whole party set out the same day, pro- 
vided in part with arms from the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany's establishment and carrying a few days' provision. 
They camped for the night at Spuzzum rancheria, 
where the force was increased to nearly two hundred 
men from among the large number of miners who had 
abandoned the upper bars to seek refuge here. Snyder 
now called a meeting, and represented the necessity for 
united action in order to carry the expedition to a 
speedy and successful close. He also pleaded in favor 
of conciliatory measures, and after some discussion, 
he managed to overrule the blood-thirsty policy of 

after which the Indian camps were burned. According to James Stewart, nine 
Indians were killed, one of them a chief, several were wounded, and tliree 
taken prisoners. Quite a uumljer of packages of powder and lead, supposed 
to have been furnished by the Chinese, were found in the Indian c^mps. 
Three rancherias were burned above the Big Canon, and two belov.'. Snyder s 
Letter from Yale, Aug. 17th, in Victoria Gazette, Aug. 24, 1858. 



CAPTAINS SXYDER AND GRAHAM. 397 

Graham, and to gain an almost unanimous approval 
for his own plan. By this vote he was practically 
recognized as commander-in-chief of the expedition.^ 
Snyder now proceeded with the main portion of 
the expedition to Long Bar, where a treaty was made 
with the most troublesome of the tribes, who pro- 
fessed a desire for peace. Five natives were there- 
upon sent with a white flag down through the caiion 
to Graham's part}^, which was met four miles above 
where they had promised to wait. Graham took the 
flag, tlirew it on the ground, trampled it under foot, 
and camped on the spot. During the night an attack 
was made on the camp, and Graham and his lieuten- 
ant fell at the first fire. This act is supposed to have 
been prompted by the outrage on the flag,^ and may 

^One report divides them into four companies: Captain Snj'der's, with 51 
men; Captain Centras', with 72 men; Captain Graham's, with 20 men, mostly 
from \Vliatcom; and Captain Galloway's, with ahout the same numher. 
Another account gives Snyder 75 men, and mentions two other companies of 
20 men each; all of whom left Yale on the 18th with five days' provisions. 
The organization, in the manner of an army of foreigners commanded by a 
foreigner, was not wholly to the liking of the cautioiis Hudson's Bay men at 
Yale, who characterized Snyder's expedition as a mob acting without author- 
ity. W. T. G., YdXe, Aug. 2Sth, cor. Victoria Gazette, Sept. 1, 1858. The 
Victoria Gazette of August 25th gives the captains now as Snyder, Graham, 
and Yates, and places the total force at 194 men. A little below the Spuzzum 
ranclierii, Snyder fell in with some Indians, and persuaded the chief to call 
them all together to have a talk. He with Centras and an interpreter accom- 
panied the chief down the river two miles, when the latter gave a whoop, and 
instantly about 70 Indians emerged as if by magic, out of the rocks. These 
were peaceable Indians, simply alarmed at the attitude of affairs, and in 
hiding. They were delighted with Snyder's reassurances, and bound them- 
selves to keep the peace. At the rancherla Snyder's command found 500 
white men, the greater jjart of whom had come down the river on account of 
the Indian difficulties. From this point the force was increased to ISO men 
in all, who proceeded toward the Big Caiion, Yale. Victoria Gazette, Sept. 1, 
1858. 

'The first report as published l)y the Victoria Gazette, Aug. 25, 1858, says 
that at the rancheria near China Bar, Snyder called together 200 Indians, 
made a treaty with them, and left a letter for Graham intorming him of the 
fact. Ou tiie 20th Graham arrived at the same place, Snyder's command 
having gone on. The Indians hoisted a wliite Hag, and showed Graham the 
letter. The party camped at the rancheria with four or live men out as sen- 
tries. At niglit they were suddenly attacked, and Graham and his lieutenant 
were killed at the first fire. Tlie news of this so far inaccurately related 
event as it reached Yale and Victoria was in the first few days exaggerated 
into a general massacre. All but two of Graham's men were reported killed. 
A German wlio escaped into the buslies was said to have witnessed the Ind- 
ians mutilating 38 of the bodies, and tlirowing them into the river. In con- 
firmation of tlie alleged massacre, sixteen of tlie bodies, many of tliem 
decapitated, were reported to have been picked up along the river, including 



398 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

account for the fact that only the leaders were killed. 
At China Bar, Snyder's command, August 19th, 
adopted a resolution, the matter having been dul}^ 
submitted to them, that in consequence of the report 
believed by many that the Chinese had been selling 
ammunition to the Indians, if not inciting them, the 
former should all go below, while they were assured 
possession of their claims as soon as peace could be 
established. Snyder's party left on the 20th, accom- 
panied by the chief of the tribe above the Big Canon. 
Boston Bar and all the bars above the rancher ki were 
found deserted. Nineteen miles above China Bar an- 
other tribe was brought under regulations by a treaty. 
On the 21st two more tribes signed treaties of peace, 
and shortly afterward Snyder's command fell in with 
Spintlum, a noted Thompson Biver chief, accompa- 
nied by six other chiefs and three hundred Indians, 
and speeches were made which were considered very 
sensible on both sides, reofrettingf the overt acts of 
the bad white men and bad Indians. On the 2 2d of 
August, Snyder and his men reached Thompson River, 
made treaties of peace with several additional tribes, 
and at 2 p. m. on that day they began the return march, 
impelled thereto chiefly by the lack of provisions. 
Yale was reached on the 25th. Five chiefs of those 
with whom treaties had been concluded accompanied 
the party voluntarily, Snyder pledging himself for 
their safety. Two thousand Indians in all had sub- 
mitted between Spuzzum and the Forks. 

In the course of the whole campaign thirty-one 
Indians were killed, nearly all by the rifle company in 

tlie bodies of Johnson of Whatcom and Miller of Yale. From a later account 
it appeared that a party of Indians who were returning from a scout at 11 p. m. , 
and unaware of the treaty formed, finding Graham's company camped near 
the rancheria referred to, at once tired upon them, but that the friendlj^ Ind- 
ians whom Snyder had met the day before as promptly interfered. Of the 
eight bodies of white miners that were taken out of the river on the 1 9th and 
20th of August and later, some were drowned, and only part of them were 
headless. Victoria Gazette, Aug. 26, 1858. This unfortunate event, instead of 
still further rousing the blood-thirsty minority composed chiefly of the Wliat- 
com men, tended rather to conciliate them to the peaceful policy of Snyder, 
whose plans were no longer interfered with. 



SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. 399 

their onslaught at the beginning. The Indians killed 
were innocent, the killing of white men was traced by 
Snyder to the Big Canon tribe, enemies of the tribe 
below, whose rancherias had been burned by the rifle 
company.^" 

No sooner had the expedition returned than the 
miners were again at work on their claims; and the 
trail was as^ain crowded on the 25th of August with 
individual miners carrying their packs up the river 
toward L}'tton.^^ The Indians above Yale were re- 
ported to be quieter, friendlier, and more accommo- 
dating in the first week of September following the 
campaign than they had been at any time since the 
gold excitement began. The Indians along the Fraser, 
indeed, proved themselves useful ever afterward in 
keeping order among the miners, by rendering assist- 
ance in the arrest of gamblers and other outlaws who 
upon occasion saw fit to move out of the reach of the 
local magistrates.^^ 

Douglas wrote the colonial office, August 27th, that 
he proposed to make a journey to the front himself, 
accompanied by thirty-five sappers and miners, and 
twenty marines from the SatelUfe, though he con- 
sidered that force "absurdly small for such an occa- 
sion." But as the occasion for it had passed, the 
soldiers and sailors were not called into action at this 
time, nor until January 1859, when arose the Mc- 
Gowan alarm, to be hereafter described, of which the 
present sudden development of armed forces may have 
laid the foundation in part. 

^^ During the progress of the campaign ami for three weeks in August end- 
ing with the return of Snyder's expeclition, the Iwdics of white men in a 
more or less mutilated and only partially recognizable condition were daily 
tished out of the river and picked up along its banks. In the origin of these 
difficulties it was conceded that tlie whites M'cre not free from blame. On tlie 
2-lth the men marclied 38 miles over the worst part of the canon trail under 
t'.ie incentive of hunger, their provisions having by that time entirely given 
out. Yale cor. Victoria Guzetfc, Sept. 1; also Aug. *J6, 27, 28, ]S.")S. 

" Victoria Gazette, Aug. 20, 27, 28, and Sept. 1, 7, 1858. Tlie Yale cor- 
respondent, 'T. W. G.,' of the Gazttte, Aug. 28th, dated the start and return 
of Snydur's expedition a day later than the official report, which I have as- 
sumed to be correct. 

^-Allans Carhioo, MS., 19. 



400 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

In the mean time Douglas had returned to Victoria. 
On the 9th of June 1858 James Yates, fur-trader, and 
five others, petitioned him on behalf of the public, 
who had met four days before, to remove the restric- 
tions imposed upon trade by the fur company ; but he 
refused. As the miners were suffering for food, he 
permitted the Surprise and the Sea Bird to make 
each one trip, and for the present no more. 

In July, Sir E. B. Lytton, secretary for the col- 
onies, writes asking Douglas in case he is appointed 
governor of the Mainland at a salary of £1,000 per 
annum for six years, if he will sever his connection 
with the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound companies. 
Lytton likewise proposes to send out an engineer 
officer with two or three subalterns and one hundred 
and fifty sappers and miners, to survey the parts of 
the country most suitable for settlement, designate 
where roads should be made, and suggest a site for 
the seat of government. Lytton further insists on 
kind treatment of the natives, and that no jealousy 
be shown Americans; he suggests a council of advice 
to be formed partly of British subjects and partly 
of foreigners. 

Although the revenue collected by impost was con- 
siderable, it was regarded as too small in the present 
emergency by Douglas, who asked the home govern- 
ment first for money, and next to guarantee a loan. 
Both of these requests were at first refused, but 
finally permission was granted to borrow one hundred 
thousand pounds at six per cent. 

Amono^ the first sus^orestions of the colonial secre- 
tary, was that public lands should be sold, and towns 
laid out, and the lots disposed of. Douglas was not 
slow to act on the hint. He sent Pemberton and had 
town sites surveyed beside the forts of Langley, Hope, 
and Yale. 

The government price of land, except town sites 
and mineral lands, which were to be sold by auction, 
was fixed at ten shillings an acre, half cash and* half 



DOUGLAS' SECOND SURVEY. 401 

in two years. The miners' license was five dollars 
monthly. 

Lytton never failed to instil into the mind of Dong- 
las the colonial principle of self-reliance. A youth- 
ful and vigorous community must find means to 
defend itself, to govern itself, and to improve itself 
The mother would hold over it a ready protecting 
hand, but the child must learn to walk by itself Any 
course tending to engender ill-feeling, o£ to bring 
about a bloody conflict between the government and 
the adventurers should, if possible, be avoided. But 
in the event of the failure of pacific measures, and the 
inability of the colonial government to maintain order 
and defend itself, England's sword would always I e 
ready. The infant colony should not burden itself 
with debt; the officers should work together in har- 
mony; free representative institutions should be es- 
tablished, but in this as in all things precipitate action 
should be avoided. The electoral franchise should be 
framed to suit the community. 

In a second visit Douglas arrived at Fort Hope 
the od of September in the steamer Umatilla, and was 
received with demonstrations of respect. The governor 
was much interested in the cutting of a road from 
Hope to Yale. He saw Spintlum, chief at the Forks, 
as the place at the junction of Fraser and Thompson 
rivers was then known, then the objective point of the 
gold-seekers, and after making him a present instructed 
him how he should treat the miners. For the estab- 
lishment of public government measures were taken 
on the Gth in the appointment for Fort Hope of one 
justice of the peace, two regular and ten special con- 
stables; for Fort Yale, one sub -commissioner, ten 
troopers, and ten special constables; for the Forks, 
one sub-commissioner, ten troopers, and a warden of the 
river. He committed King for the murder of Eaton^^ 

"Z)o"r/?f«' Private Papers, MS., ser. i. 103. A case of stabbing arisincr out 
of an olii quarrel. King was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 
transportation for life. Victoria Gazette, Sept. IG, 18jS; Pajxrn, B. C, pt. ii. 4. 



Hist. IJrit. Col. 



402 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

on the testimony or six witnesses from Hill Bar, and 
visited Murderer Bar. On the 7th Douglas gave 
directions to lay out the town of Hope, granting titles 
to lots by sufference, terminable at one month's notice, 
the monthly sum of ten dollars paid by the occupant 
to be considered as part of the purchase-money when 
valid conve3^ance was made.^^ 

Wednesday, 15th September, "met the people and 
read them a short address," Douglas writes. "Gave 
notice of the opening of court to-morrow. Granted 
permission to occupy town lots. The document issued 
is not a lease at all, but simply permission to occupy 
the land on certain conditions ... If administered with 
economy, a very moderate sum will be required to 
meet the expenses of the government. The chief ex- 
penses will be the salaries of tlie different officers, and 
some necessary improvements, such as court-houses, 
roads, etc., which will cost a considerable sum, and 
providing public buildings. The revenue of the country 
will fully meet that, and soon yield a large excess for 
other purposes." Douglas was attended at this time 
by George Pearkes, crown solicitor, who presided at 
Fort Yale, bringing several offenders to justice. B. 
C Donnellan, formerly of the police force in San 
Francisco, was made chief of police there, and P. B. 
Whannell justice of the peace. At Lower Fountain- 
ville, a trader, Alexander McCrellish, was appointed 
police magistrate. 

The 4th of September, the governor proclaimed 
at Fort Hope that any person convicted before a 
magistrate of selling or giving spirituous liquors to 
the natives of Fraser Biver or elsewhere would be , 
mulcted in the penal sum of from five to twenty pounds. 
Aliens might hold lands, subject to forfeiture by the 
crown at any moment, for three years, after Avhich 
time they must become naturalized British subjects, 

1* 'Front street to be 120 feet wide, the other main streets to be 100 feet, 
anl tlie cross streets to be 80 feet broad.' Douglas' Private Paiiers,'^!^., ser, 
i. 102-3. 



WAYS AND J^IEAXS. 403 

or lose their lands, or convey them to British subjects. 
The 22cl of December, to defray the expenses of the 
new government, Douglas imposed by proclamation 
at Victoria a duty of ten per centum on all articles 
not otherwise specified, entering British Columbia. ^^ 
The port of Victoria, which was free, as concerned 
Vancouver Island, was declared the port of entry for 
British Columbia, and a collector of customs was ap- 
pointed. 

On the 4th of October Douglas answered Lytton, 
agreeing to withdraw from the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, promising to sell his Puget Sound stock, and 
to accept the office of double governor. But £1,000 a 
year w^as too ridiculously small a salary for so high an 
office, he said. He supposed the government wished 
its chief officer to live in a manner befitting the posi- 
tion, which would cost, he estimated, at least £5,000 
per annum. And for general purposes he thought 
parliament should grant the new gold colony either 
as a gift, or as a loan, £200,000. 

In reply Lytton talked economy as usual; hoped 
that the colony would Y*^ant nothing given it outright 
by the imperial government but the governor's salary, 
which for the Mainland and Island should not exceed 
£1.800, except, indeed, the excess be raised by the 
colony, in which event England was not at all par- 
ticular how much he got. The imperial government 
would advance the money to pay the engineers sent out 
from England, but it must be in due time refunded. 

In the main the secretary sanctioned the unauthor- 
ized proceedings of Douglas; he acknowledged his 
difficulties and praised his zeal, Nevertheless, he 
warned him against the use of his authority as gov- 
ernor for the profit of the Hudson's Bay Company. 

^* Flour paid 2s. Id. a barrel; bacon, 4s. 2d. per 100 R)S.; spirits, 4s. 2d. a 
gallon; wines, 2s. Id. a gallon; ale, 6\d. a gallon; beans and pease, G^d. per 
100 R)S. ; barley and oats, Gld. per 200 lbs. Coin, quicksilver, fresh meats and 
vegetables, timber, hay, -wheat, books, and baggage were free. The duty on 
spirits was advanced the following year to 6s. '3d. 



404 GOVERNMENT OF THE INIAIXLAND. 

In the first flush of the Fraser River discovery, and 
while yet the hallowed exclusiveness of the company 
was not seriously disturbed, Douglas proclaimed that 
for vessels other than their own to navigate the 
Fraser was an infringement of the rights of the 
company. This Lytton flatly denies; the rights of 
the company extended to exclusive trade with the 
natives, and to nothing else. So when Douglas 
ordained that the Pacific Mail Steamship Company 
should carry the Hudson's Bay Company's goods and 
no others, and passengers having a miner's license 
and no others, the secretary said no ; men might wish 
to go there for other purposes than to mine or trade 
with the natives, and the fur compan}^ must not pre- 
vent them. Miners' licenses were well enough, but 
they must be required of those intending to mine. 

On the 17th of October there arrived at Esquimalt 
H. B. M. ship Ganges, three decks, eighty-four guns, 
and seven hundred and fifteen men, in which Admiral 
Baynes came from Valparaiso to command the naval 
fleet which was to guard the newly found wealth of 
British Columbia. The admiral called on the gov- 
ernor, and the Satellite fired her guns; then all was 
calm; and in the forest the wild beasts revelled in 
unwonted freedom, while savage and civilized alike 
scrambled for gold. The Ganges sailed for Valparaiso 
in December. The steam frigate Tribune, Captain 
Hornby, and the steam corvette Pleiades, Captain 
Michael de Coucey, anchored in Esquimalt Harbor 
on the 14th of February 1859; also the ship Thames 
City, with government stores. 

On the 8th of November Chartres Brew, of the 
Irish Constabulary, who had served with distinction 
in the Crimea, came to Victoria under appointment 
to organize a constabulary police in British Columbia. 
Joseph D. Pemberton was colonial surveyor, under 
whose auspices was established a land-oflice at Vic- 
toria, where districts were laid out, and one-hundred- 
acre sections offered at fixed rates. Pemberton was 



ANOTHER NOTABLE EXCURSION. 405 

nominated surveryor-general of the Mainland, but the 
cohjnial secretary made other arrangements. W. T. 
U. Hamley was appointed by the queen collector 
of customs for British Columbia, and later G. H. 
Gary was sent out as solicitor-general. Travaillot 
and Hicks were nominated assistant commisioners 
of crown-lands at Thompson River and Yale, and W. 
H. Bevis revenue officer at Langley. 

Owing to the large number from Galifornia, Oregon, 
and Washington among the ranks of the gold-seekers, 
it was deemed advisable by the United States govern- 
ment that a commissioner, or special agent, should be 
appointed, the result of which was the sending of 
John Nugent to British Golumbia. 

At a dinner given him on the eve of his departure 
by his countrjanen at the Hotel de France, Victoria, 
the lOtli of November, Mr Nugent paid a high com- 
pliment to Gaptain Prevost and his officers of the 
Satellite, who, while true to the interests of their own 
government in guarding the peace of the Mainland 
during the heat of the gold excitement, had not been 
unmindful of those of the subjects or citizens of other 
governments. The United States steamer Active had 
taken her station in Victoria Harbor the 2d of Au- 
gust previous. 

Again, on the 17th of November, in company with 
Rear-admiral Bayncs, David Cameron, chief-justice 
of Vancouver Island, and Matthew B. Begbie, chief- 
justice of British Columbia, embarked on board H. 
B. M. steamer Satellite for Eraser River, the Otter 
attending. At the mouth of the River was moored 
the Beaver, and at Langley the Recovery, now turned 
into a revenue-cutter by the Hudson's Bay Company. 
Arrived at Fort Langley, Begbie and others holding 
imperial appointments took the oaths of office, and 
Douglas was sworn in as governor of British Columbia. 
Proclamations were read revoking the Hudson's Bay 
Company's license, indemnifying past irregularities, 



406 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

and adopting English law. Guns were fired, flags 
flaunted, and amidst a drizzling rain mother England 
was delivered of a new colony. 

Thus the Mainland wilderness, called by the fur- 
traders, according to its respective parts. New Cale- 
donia, and the districts of Thompson River, the 
Columbia, and the like, was erected into a crown 
colony under the name of British Columbia,^^ with for 
a time the governor of Vancouver Island its governor, 
and the capital of Vancouver Island its capital, Wil- 
liam A. G. Young acting as colonial secretary. 

Such acts as had been performed by Douglas, or by 
his order, for the collection of revenue and the main- 
tenence of order while the country was yet without 
law or established government, were by proclamation 
of the governor made valid. English law was then 
declared in force in British Columbia, and the gov- 
ernor, by proclamation, was enabled to convey crown- 
lands. 

After Hope, Langley was for a brief period distin- 
guished as the capital of the Mainland. The former 
site of the old fort and the land about it was sur- 
veyed by Pemberton and Pearse, and laid out as a 
town, to which was given the name Derby. On the 
25th, 26th, and 29th of November the lots, sixty- 
four by one hundred feet, were sold by auction at 
Victoria at an upset price of one hundred dollars. 
Adjoining the town site were ten square miles of 
land reserved by the Hudson's Bay Company. The 
sale occupied three days. About 400 lots were 
sold at from $40 to $725, aggregating $G8,000, a 
pretty sum for a piece of swampy wilderness; but 
Derby was at this time to be the capital of the 

^'^ Several names were suggested by various persons for the ]Mainland. In 
parliament, Hanmrd's Par. Deb., ili. 1347-8, Pacitica was proposed. Some 
thought the extension of the term New Caledonia over the Mainland appro- 
priate. But tlie name Columbia, from the advent of the Northwest Company 
to tiie present time, liad been the favorite appellation for a large and promi- 
nent part, and often at a distance for the whole, of the Northwest Coast, and 
so British Columbia became the favorite. 



MOODY, GOSSET, AND CRICKENER. 407 

Mainland, and play the Sacramento to Victoria's San 
Francisco/^ 

Richard Clement Moody, colonel of royal engineers, 
was sent out by Secretary Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, 
September 1858, as chief commissioner of lands and 
works, and office for the sale of public lands and the 
direction of public works, with a dormant commission 
as lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, to ad- 
minister the government of the colony in case of the 
incapacity or absence of the governor. He was also 
chief in command of the royal engineers destined for 
British Columbia, his second being J. M. Grant, who 
arrived at Victoria with the first detachment of twelve 
men on the 8th of November; the main body coming 
round Cape Horn in the Thames City. Among the 
officers were H. H. Luard, A. B. Lempricre, H. S. 
Palmer, and Siddell, surgeon. Moody's regimental pay 
was £330, and his colonial allowance £1,200, making 
£1,530 per annum, Begbie's salary was £800. At 
this time Moody was senior officer commanding all 
her majesty's land forces in British Columbia and 
Vancouver Island. It was expected that the royal 
engineers would act in a military as well as in a civil 
capacity, as occasion required. Among them were a 
few experienced in cavalry and artillery drill who 
might form a nucleus for further increasing the mili- 
tary force of the colony by enlistments of disappointed 
British gold-seekers, should occasion require. Those 
who came with Grant were first stationed a Langle}', 
and material was furnished with which to build them- 
selves houses. 

Moody arrived Christmas-day, took the oath of 
office, Cameron administering it the 4th of January 
1859, and domiciled himself for the time being at 
Victoria. With Moody came W. Driscoll Gosset, 
treasurer of British Columbia, and B. Crickener, 

■ ' Proved a failure, and many persons lost money purchasing lots which 
turned out of no value.' Finluimns V. I., MS., GO. Tenders were aske<l in 
January for building a church, parsonage, court-house, aud jail at Langley, 
which naturally excited the people to expect great things of the place. 



408 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

afterwards chaplain at Yale. The Plumper, Captain 
Richards, formerly there in 1857 to determine the 
point at which the 49th parallel touched the sea, and 
the boundary line thence to Fuca Strait, had since 
assisted the Satellite in her duties, and was in the 
present emergency generally useful. 

The rumors of the miners' disturbance at Yale, in 
which figured Edward McGowan, of inglorious mem- 
ory, brought the Plumper to Derby only to find that 
Moody, with twenty-five of his engineers, had gone 
before in the Enterprise. Between the fiery justice of 
Begbie, who was present, and the span-new arms of 
the enorineers, the rouo^hs of Hill Bar had nothino; 
to say, and soon her Majesty's forces were permitted 
to fall back to Hope, where they found the Plumper 
awaiting them. 

The story is told in this wise, and begins back with 
the opening of this memorable season of 1858. The 
boundary line not being then clearly plain in the 
minds of some, there were those who believed, or 
affected to believe, that the lower Eraser, including 
Langley and Hope, were in United States territory. 
The fur monopoly, the restrictions on shipping, the 
duties on goods, and the tax on miners had rendered 
the government at Victoria very unpopular among 
the adventurers, who were accustomed to think and 
act for themselves. On various occasions during the 
spring and summer, in a spirit of bravado rather than 
of open resistance, the incomers had quietly defied 
the authorities, who in return held the rude strangers 
in some little awe. Not that Douglas entertained 
any fears as to the result in case of war. In various 
w^ays he held the miners at a disadvantage. Besides 
the force which at any moment might be brought 
from the British men-of-war at the mouth of the 
river and at Victoria, he could have cut off their 
supplies of food, and have turned in upon them ten 
thousand savages. But such measures were not for a 
moment to be thought of; Douglas and Lytton were 



LAW IN THE MINES. 409 

both decidedly opposed to bloody encounters except 
as a lost resort. 

Acting with his accustomed promptness and pre- 
cision fortunately, American ideas were not allowed 
belligerently to germinate in British Columbia; so 
that the present incident, dignified at the time by the 
word 'outrage,' was the only occasion of a combined 
military and naval campaign in the settlement of the 
country. 

Hill Bar was now the richest and most populous 
mining camp on the river, and the head-quarters in 
the nature of things of the opposition element. This 
consisted, firstly, in village rivalry, and secondly, in 
the ascendency of the foreign element, which pro- 
tested against the onerous restrictions by which 
Douglas had aimed to prevent the country from being 
quite overrun and ruled by the Americans. Yale was 
conservative and commercial; Hill Bill was inhabited 
exclusively by miners, and was consequently radical, 
if not revolutionary, regardless of everything in fact 
but gold, with fair play as its single tenet serving as 
a code of law. Under such conditions, nothing beyond 
a pretext was wanting to create an event character- 
istic of the situation. First there grew up a rivalry 
between the magnates who served as magistrates 
of the two places. In December 1858 the resident 
magistrate of Hill Bar, Perrier, took occasion to claim 
jurisdiction over a prisoner named Farrell, from the 
Bar, whom his constable had arrested for an offence 
committed at Yale. He was incarcerated at Yale by 
the rival magistrate, AVhanncll, who in the exercise 
of his judgment and prerogatives considered it also 
his duty to arrest and to incarcerate for contempt of 
court the arresting constable of Justice Perrier, and 
to refuse to give up either of his prisoners. 

To enforce the majcst}^ of the law, as administered 
at Hill Bar, Justice Perrier thought proper to swear 
in special constables from the Bar, to recover his own 
constable by force, and to bring the original prisoner, 



410 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

Farrell, with the rival Justice Whannell, under a 
charge of contempt before the court at HiU Bar/^ 
Among the specials so sworn was a miner from Hill 
Bar, who had attained some notoriety as an object 
of attention from the Vigilance Committe of San 
Francisco, an ex-judge of California, the redoubtable 
Ned McGowan. 

The posse from Hill Bar, under the leadership of 
special constable Kelly, effected the removal of the 
three prisoners. Whether from his notoriety as a 
rough, or the part enacted by him as a special 
constable, McGowan was made out to have figured 
conspicuously in the affair, Ijut further than counte- 
nancing the transaction, and guiding it within lawful 
bounds, such does not appear to have been the fact. 
Meetings were held both at Yale and at Hill Bar 
for the purpose of supporting their respective jus- 
tices. At Hill Bar one hundred and fifty men placed 
themselves 'under arms' in the cause of magisterial 
dignity as represented by Justice Perrier. Farrell 
was tried according to law at Hill Bar, and fined 
seventy-five dollars; the Yale constable was released, 
and Justice Whannell was adjudged guilty himself of 
contempt, and fined fifty dollars, and then allowed to 
return to his bench at Yale. The outrasfed maois- 
trate of Yale next invoked the aid of the army and 
navy. Despatches were sent down the river to the 

^^ The particulars of the origin of this early case of mutual contempt in the 
legal history of the colony are as follows: Farrell and Burns, two miners from 
Hill Bar, on the 25th of December 1858, went to Yale and got drunk. They 
went into a barber's shop, where they fell into an altercation with the pro- 
prietor, a colored man named Dickson, who was severely beaten by a pist( A 
in the hands of Farrell. Complaint having been made before Justice Whan- 
nell, warrants were issued for the arrest of the offenders. The Yale constabb 
not being able to make the arrest, the Hill Bar constable. Hicks, belonging to 
Perrier 's court, arrested the miners, and brought them before Justice Whan- 
nell at Yale, but saying something which offended Whannell, was himself 
locked up with his prisoner. Justice Perrier then issued a warrant for the 
arrest of Justice Whannell for contempt. Kelly, the special who was de- 
puted for the service, along with McGowan and others from Hill Bar, managed 
the business so well that no violence was done, nor was the letter of the law 
transgressed. McGowan took care to participate in the proceedings only as 
adviser and sjsectator. The difficulty arose from the overbearing manner, 
and perhaps also the want of legal knowledge, of the justice at Yale. Victoria 
Gazette, Jan. 8, 22, 1859. 



I 



ON THE WAR PATH. 411 

effect that the notorious ex-judge, an outlaw of the 
worst character, was at the bottom of it all, and the 
ringleader of a dangerous body of men of his own 
stripe, and of American sympathizers who had vio- 
lently rescued a criminal from the clutches of the 
law at Yale. Hill Bar was reported to be the head- 
quarters of *' as desperate a gang of villains as ever 
went unhanged. "^^ The gold commissioner at Hope 
notified the governor, who applied to Colonel Moody 
of the army, and to Captain Richards of the navy, for 
assistance in the maintenance of the law. Stories 
were rife of the deeds by Avhich the supposed ring- 
leader of the incipient rebellion had gained his noto- 
riety. Several companies of marines, sappers, miners, 
and police were sent to Hope and Yale to unravel the 
farce. 

Early in January 1859, Moody started from Lang- 
ley with the company of engineers stationed there, 
numbering twenty-five, who had just arrived in the 
colony, forming the advance guard for the scene of 
action. Prevost, of the Plumjyer, sent a party to 
support Moody, and lieutenants Gooch and Mayne 
embarked with a hundred marines and sailors from 
the Flumjjer and Satellite, taking also a field-piece. 
This detachment proceeded as far as Langley in the 
Plumper, Moody having gone on in the steamer En- 
terprise, the only steamer on the river at the time 
capable of navigating above Langley. Mayne was 
sent on with despatches from Kichards, requesting 
instructions. The police force under Brew joined the 
excursion. 

Mr Yale, the Hudson's Bay Company's oflicer in 

'^ victoria Gazette, Jan. 11, 1859. A later issue of the same journal, on 
Jan. 15tli, gave the transaction quite a different coloring, and the Ear a bet- 
ter name. Justice Perrier came out in a defence of Hill Bar a.s an unusually 
orderly place, and explained further tliat it was by the insidious advice of an 
individual not named that Whanuell had committed the acts wiiicli caused 
the difficulty. This person proceeded doNvn the river after the denouement 
iu tlie courts, and ' l)y his lying and drunken reports wherever he stopped on 
Ins M'ay to Victoria, caused serious alarm.' Perrier's letter, in Vktoria 
Gazettj, Feb. 1, 1859 



412 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

charge at Fort Langley, supplied Mayne with a 
canoe and nine stout paddlers, four half-breeds and 
five Indians, under the command of Mr Lewis. Be- 
fore starting, Mr Yale harangued the crew to impress 
them with the importance of the service, and presented 
each man with streamers of bright red, blue, and yel- 
low ribbons, which were attached to their caps as a 
substitute for war-paint. Travelling through the night 
in midwinter, among floating blocks of ice, the Indians 
chanting dolefully to the movement of their paddles 
as they passed the miners' cabins on the shore, the suc- 
cessive camps were startled and the sleepers awakened 
to conjure visions of murder as the only probable 
cause for such a movement at such a time. 

The gold commissioner at Hope was surprised at 
the promptness with which his requisition for troops 
had been honored by the governor, and was apparently 
a little embarrassed, having learned in the mean time 
that the rebellion was exaggerated, and that the feel- 
ing of the mining population at Yale and elsewhere 
had been grossly misrepresented. Leaving Grant and 
the engineers at Hope, Moody, Begbie, and Mayne 
accompanied the commissioner in his canoe to Yale 
for a parley. 

The town was quiet, and Moody was surprised on 
entering it to meet a reception the most cordial, 
accompanied by lusty cheering. Finding the situa- 
tion peaceful, and the next day being Sunday, Moody, 
instead of projecting redoubts and parallels, per- 
formed divine service in the court-house — the first 
occasion of public Christian worship in the town of 
Yale. But after church Moody crossed the path 
of Ned McGowan. The consequence was, that Mc- 
Gowan said somethinsf and did somethino; which was 
construed as insulting, as an unprovoked assault upon 
the majesty of the law represented in the person of 
Moody. Probably it was : Ned was fully capable of 
such things. Finding sundry other suspicious circum- 
stances significant of insubordination on the part of 



NED THE UBIQUITOUS. 413 

]\IcGowan's friends, Moody directed Mayne to drop 
quickly down the river at night and order up the 
forces. The utmost precaution was taken to maintain 
secrecy. Allard, of the Hudson's Bay Company's es- 
tablishment, had a small canoe launched in the dark- 
ness and taken a mile down the river to a point on the 
right bank, where Mayne embarked. The latter was 
afraid even to light his pipe until he had passed Hill 
Bar, fearing that he would be stopped by the mob. 
But the miners had the advantage of him in this 
movement, being well aware of it, and considerably 
amused thereat. To the surprise of every one, how- 
ever, Grant and the whole body of engineers ap- 
peared at Yale the next morning by daylight. The 
flotilla of canoes lay bows on beneath the blufl*. 
When the sleeping diggers awoke, the atmosphere 
appeared belligerent. Meanwhile, Mayne sped on to 
Langley on board the Enterprise, arriving the same 
afternoon. 

At nightfall the Enterprise was turned up the 
river Avith the marines, sailors, police, and the field- 
piece on board. At Hope the officer in charge re- 
ceived despatches from Moody to the effect that only 
the marines were to be sent on to Yale. 

When they arrived at Yale the next morning they 
found the war was over. McGowan, having cnjoj'ed 
the sensation, paid the gold commissioner a formal 
visit, tendered a gentlemanly apology for his assault 
on Moody, proved satisfactorily that he had been 
acting only the part of special constable under the 
orders of the magistrate, committed himself frankly 
into the hands of justice for making the assault under 
supposed provocation, and paid his fine. With char- 
acteristic impudence, he then took upon himself to do 
the honors of Hill Bar. Conducting Begbie and Mayne 
over the dicfuinsfs, he washed some dirt for their en- 
lightenment, and joined by a dozen others, gave them 
a champagne collation, which all enjoyed. And so 
the affair passed off. Perrier and his constable were 



414 GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

dismissed from office for straining a point of legal 
dignity.^'' 

The fears of Douglas, concerning the danger to be 
apprehended from the unchecked life of the early 
mining period in these parts, appear to have been 
allayed after the event just described. In his de- 
spatch of January 22d to the colonial office touching 
the " outrage at Yale," he testifies to the fact that 
the Americans and other foreigners had developed a 
state of feeling of the best description. "Their num- 
bers," he says, "are now so much reduced that the 
danger of insurrectionary movement on their part is 
not imminent." 

McGowan's career in this part of the world was 
brought to a conclusion by shooting at a man at Hill 
Bar, but though he missed his mark, he remembered 
the cut of Begbie's features, and deemed it valor to 
depart, which he did, escaping across the boundary.-^ 

On his way up the river. Moody had closely scru- 
tinized the banks with a view to the best site for the 
metropolis of the Mainland. He did not like Derby ; 
perhaps because of its distance from the mouth of 
the river, of the swampy character of the ground 
thereabout, of the difficulty of approach by sea-going 
vessels; perhaps because Douglas had selected it, and 
the Hudson's Bay Company had ten square miles of 

^^ Mayne's B. C. , 58-70. Douglas said "Whannell was not properly supported 
by the Fort Yale police, who fell away at the first appearance of danger. 
Despatch Jan. 8, 1859, to the colonial office, in B. Col. Papers, ii. 55-6. 
The movement from Hill Bar was evidently organized and timed with a view 
of preventing the chances of a collision. 

^'Mayne comments appreciatively upon McGowan's gentlemanly traits 
and on his published autobiography. While at Hill Bar he was the owner 
of a rich claim, and popular among his fellows. Not having either the love 
or fear of British rule in his heart, he was a character obnoxious to the 
authorities at this juncture. It the course of this difliculty he had also a 
personal altercation with M. W. Phifer. See Victoria Gazette, Jan. 22, 1858, 
and in San Francisco Bulletin, Feb. 28, 1859, article entitled ' Ned McGowan 
and his colony, ' in which a writer speaks of the judge as ' lord of the manor, ' 
who ' entertains on behalf of his subjects all distinghished strangers ... per- 
sonal like or dislike of the host is not considered . . . pledges the queen's health 
in champagne . . . There was a ro"' but McGowan apologized and pledged him- 
S3lf against any recurrence. ' 



FOUNDING OF NEW WESTMINSTJER. 415 

land in reserve adjoining it. Of what avail were the 
royal engineers with their technical training if they 
could not see further into the mysteries of forest- 
taming and empire-building than common fur-traders 1 

On the north bank of the river, just above the 
delta, a high beach had been noticed, a beach which 
was thought a fitting place for an imperial city. The 
approach from either direction was magnificent, and 
any ship that could enter over the bar at the mouth 
of the river might moor beside its wharves. True, 
the expense of city-building there would be greater 
than at Derby; the former spot was high and thickly 
forested, while the latter was low and open ; but surely 
gold was now plentiful enough to allow them to choose 
the best. 

So that when the Plumper dropped down the 
stream some fifteen miles from Derby to the beach 
before mentioned, it was determined that both from 
geographical and strategical points of view, this was 
the best place on the river. The men therefore were 
put to work cutting trees, and soon a field of stumps 
appeared which outnumbered the houses built for 
twenty years and more.'^"^ To this imperial stump- 
field was given at first, and until her majesty should 
indicate her royal pleasure, the name Queensborough ; 
but when such pleasure was known, it was called New 
Westminster."^ 

Notice was given by the governor the 14th of Feb- 
ruary 1859, that it was intended immediately to lay 
out, on the north bank of the lower Fraser, the site 
of a city to be the capital of British Columbia, the 
lots to be sold by auction in April, one fourth of them 
to be reserved in blocks for purchasers in other parts 
of her majesty's dominions. Purchasers of lots in 

2'^ ' Dr Campbell and I went to examine a j)art a little north of where the 
town stands, and so thick was the hush that it took us two hours to force our 
way in rather less than a mile and a half.' Maynes B. C, 72. 

•'^On the 20th of July 1859, it was publicly proclaimed that the town liere- 
tofore known as Queensborough or Queenborough should be hereafter called 
New Westminster. 



41b GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

Derby tlie November previous were at the same time 
informed that they might surrender such lots and 
receive their equivalent in Queensborough property. 
Already a revenue officer was stationed near Queens- 
borough to collect tolls from those failing to call for 
that purpose at Victoria, ^^ and from the 15 th of June 
the port of Queensborough was the publicly declared 
port of entry. 

Keturning to Victoria, the Plumjyer spent a week 
surve3^ing the harbor; then on the 10th of April she 
sailed for Nanaimo, crossed thence to the mouth of 
the river, embarked from her the marines brought 
out by the Tribune, and with twenty engineers landed 
them at Queensborough, which place was already the 
military head-quarters of British Columbia. Pitching 
their tents a mile east of the town site, they joined in 
the work of clearing. Grim as was the pleasure of in- 
experienced axemen in felling trees, that labor was 
light as compared with removing the logs, stumps, 
and the network of roots which the centuries had 
been ^ caving underground. Nevertheless a church, 
a treasury, and a court-house soon disputed possession 
with the bears ; also dwellings, restaurants, stores, and 
wharves. ^^ 

And so affairs continued until the first gold flush 
had passed away. Moody took up his residence at 
New Westminster, built the government house tliere, 
opened roads, and sold lands, Douglas spending most 
of his time at Victoria."^ More gun-boats were wanted 

2* Open boats not carrying liquors, nor more than 400 lbs. of provisions for 
each passenger, and not having cleared at Victoria, were now allowed to pass 
up the river by paying forty shillings, and five shillings for every passenger. 

^^The sale of Queensborough lots did not take place until the 1st of June, 
at which time 132 lots G6 by 132 feet found j)urchasers at prices from $110 to 
$1,375 each, aggregating over §40,000. This for the first day only; at the 
second day's sale an equal number of lots was disposed of, but at lower prices. 
Victoria Gazette, June 2, 1859. 

2® For the government of the colony of British Columbia the following pro- 
visional appointments were made by Governor Douglas, between January 1 
and June 30, 1859: Stipendiary magistrate and justice of the peace at Queens- 
borough, W. R. Spaukling; at Langley, Peter O'Reilly; at Lilloet, Thomas 
Elwyn; at Lytton, H. M. Ball. High-sheriff at Port Douglas, Charles S. 



INCORPORATION OF THE METROPOLIS. 417 

by Douglas, and the Termagant, Tojmze, and Clio were 
ordered to join the north-west squadron. 

In regard to revenue and expenditure, thanks to 
the paternal precepts of the secretary of the colonies 
ever inculcating self-support and economy, these were 
well managed. Including mining and spirit licenses, 
customs duties, and sales of lands and town lots, 
and after paying for road-building and other public 
works, extra pay for services performed by the Satel- 
lite and the Plumper, government expeditions, and 
salaries of magistrates and other officials, there was a 
l>alance on the 8th of April 1859 of over £8,000 in 
favor of the colony. 

Smuggling was practised largely from the first ap- 
pearance of the gold fever. Particularly along the 
United States border it was found impossible, where 
all was hurry and helter-skelter, and goods were carried 
on men's backs as well as by horses and canoes, to pre- 
vent large quantities of merchandise from passing the 
line untaxed. So great became this contraband traf- 
fic, that a serious commercial depression which pre- 
vailed at Xew Westminster in the winter of 1860-1 
was charged directly to it. This view of it, however, 
the governor did not take, but tiiought it rather the 
result of over-importation. 

In the summer of 18 GO the inhabitants of Xew 
Westminster asked the privilege of incorporating their 
town, appointing municipal oflftcers, taxing themselves, 
and improving the metropolis. The powers of the 
council, which was to consist of seven members, were 
limited on the one side by the commissioner of lands 

NicoU. At Fort Yale, assistant gold commissioner, E. H. Saunilers; chief 
clerk colonial secretary's oflace, Charles Good; chief clerk of the troasur}', 
John Cooper; clerk in tlie custom-houso, W. H. MoCrea; registrar of the 
supreme court, A. I. Busliby; revenue officer at Lauglcy, Charles Wylde. 
Other officers were appoined at other times and places as necessity seemed to 
demand. Colonial officers residing at New Westminster in the aiitunni of 
1860 were R. C. Moody, lieutenant-governor, military commamler, and com- 
missioner of lands and works; Matthew B. Beghie, juilge; Chartres Brew, 
chief inspector of police; W. D. Gosset, treasurer; F. G. Claudet, assayer; 
C. A. Bacon, melter; Wymond Handey, collector of customs; W. R. Spauld- 
ing, postmaster. 

UisT. Brit. Col. 27 



418. GOVERNMENT OF THE MAINLAND. 

and works, and on the other by the tax-payers. The 
proposed tax for each of two years was two per cent 
on the assessed value of town property. The gov- 
ernor recommended the measure, and it was duly 
proclaimed at Victoria on the 16th of July 1860. To 
begin with, it was ordered that upon notice given 
ever} man should fell the trees on his own lot. 

Lytton asked Douglas what they ghoukl do with 
the Indians, and if they had not better settle them in 
villages, and give them law, taxation, religion, and 
work. Douglas answered yes; that is the best that 
can be done with them, better than the United States 
way, that and a land reserve with civilized self-sup- 
porting savages. The natives themselves, had they 
been asked, might have solved the difficulty better 
than any kingdom or republic, better than any min- 
ister or governor in Christendom. ''Let us alone," 
they would have said, "or, if you will not, what mat- 
ters it by what rules of strangulation 3'ou rob and 
murder us?"-^ 



^'Further reference may be made to De Cosnios, Gov. B. C, MS., passim; 
Coopers Mar. Matters, MS., 13-17; Ob/mpia Ciub Corns., MS., 19; Good's 
B. C., MS., 63; Evans' Fraser River, MS., 12-20; Langevin's Rept., 1; McTavish's 
Dep., passim; H. B. Co. Ei\, in H. B. Co. Claims, 58; Doufjlas' Addresses and 
Mem., 51; Annals Brit. Leg., viii. 160-5; B. C. Acts and Or., 1858-70; Han- 
si,rd's Par. Deh., cli. 1347-8; cliv. 522-5, vote £42,998 for support of govern- 
ment, 1189-95 and 1401; cLt. 1333^, £15,000 mora voted midst much 
grumbling; clxiv. 1028; clxvii. 496-7; clxxii. 514-17, v.diere complaints 
against government officers of Vancouver Island are introduced; Forbes' 
Essay, App., 17; McDonaUVs B. C, 374-7; CanelVs Hist. Enq., viii. 525; 
Cornwaliy New El Dorado, 13; Mallandnine's First Vic. Dir., 12; Brit. Col. 
Blue Boolcs, passim; Victoria Gazette, July 28, Sept. 21-3, 3J, Oct. 1, and 
Nov. 18-25, 1858, and March 10, May 12, 14, 17, 19, and June 4, 1859; 
Hihhen's Guide B.C.,\; B. C. Colonist, May 19 and Dec. 22, 1871; Tajlors 
Brit. Am., 13, 14; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., 299-307; Macfie's B. C, c, xiii.; 
Gov. Gazette, 1833-4; Tolmie's C. P. Railway Route, Int.; TarbeWs Victoria, 
MS., 5. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

1856-1880. 

Justice wtthottt Form — Inaugctration of the Judiciary System — 

JURISDICTIOX OF CANADIAN CoURTS WITHDRAWN — PeARKES DrAFTS A 

Plan for the jMaini^nd— Lytton Refers the Matter to Begbie — 
The Gold-fields Act— Appointment of Matthew Baillie Begbie — 
On Uniting the Courts Disestablished and Reorganized — Need- 
ham Declines to Retire — Two Courts both Supreme — Character 
OF Begbie — He Assists Douglas in Organizing Government — Jus- 
tice at Cariboo— Jurors Rebuked — Stipendiary Magistrates — 
Justice at Kootenai and Metlahkatlah— Convict Labor — Nobles 
along the Border — Vigilance Committee. 

We have seen the forms of justice, or rather justice 
without form, as administered by the factors and 
traders of the fur company, by poor Blanshard who 
could not afford to keep a judge, by the petty justices 
of the Island and Mainland, and by the brother-in- 
law, Chief-justice David Cameron. And must we 
confess it, that although far-reaching and strong 
enough, justice hitherto has been barely respectable, 
appearing oftener in elk-skin than in ermine, and quite 
iVequcntly with gaunt belly and tattered habiliments. 
Now we come to the refined and assayed article; no 
more retired drapers, but a genuine judge, stamped 
sterling by her Majesty's commissioner, and bearing 
upon his brow nature's most truthful impress. 

The administration of justice under a formally con- 
stituted judiciary began with the order in council 
of April 4, 1856, wherein her ^Majesty created the 
supreme court of civil justice of the colony of Van- 
couver Island with a chief-justice, registrar, and sher 



420 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

iff. By patent from the governor, the functions of the 
chief-justice;,were extended to criminal cases; he acted 
also as judge of the vice-admiralty court of Van- 
couver Island. Prior to the establishment of a legis- 
lative council and assembly, the statutory laws, as 
well as the common law of England, were in force. 
Of the supreme court, there were two branches, the 
supreme tribunal and the summary or inferior court, 
the latter having original jurisdiction in sums not 
exceeding fifty pounds. On A^ancouver Island there 
was a police magistrate and constabulary force, and at 
Victoria, Esquimalt, Nanaimo, and Barclay Sound 
there were in all six or seven persons holding com- 
'missions as justices of the peace; in 1862 there were 
three practising barristers, and four practising solici- 
tors. In the province of British Columbia, in 1875, 
there were three supreme court and five county judges. 

The act of parliament of the 2d of August 1858, 
authorizing the establishment of a colonial govern- 
ment for the Mainland, annulled the jurisdiction of 
the courts of Canada, which had hitherto extended 
over this region. 

On being asked to draw up a plan for a judiciary on 
Eraser River, George Pearkes, crown solicitor of Van- 
couver Island, appointed by Douglas, proposed a su- 
preme court with a chief-justice and two puisne judges, 
holding nisi prius and assize in the several districts, 
a registrar, a district judge presiding at the court of 
quarter-sessions, two or more justices of the peace, 
a high-sheriff for each district, and an efficient con- 
stabulary. Being referred to Lytton for his approval, 
the secretary for the colonies remarked that it ap- 
peared well adapted to the purpose, being simple and 
practical, but that Begbie had by that time arrived, 
and that it might as well be referred to him. 

Acting upon the suggestion of Lytton, made the 2d 
of September 1858, on the 31st of August following 
was instituted by proclamation at Victoria the gold- 
fields act of 1859, under which gold commissioners 



GOLD CO:NOIIS.SIONER. 421 

appointed by the governor might grant licenses to 
mine for one year for five pounds, which gave the 
miner holding it the exclusive right to his claim during 
the time covered by the license. Leases of auriferous 
lands might likewise be granted by the gold commis- 
sioner for a term of years. 

In so wild and extended an area, with population 
drifting hither and thither before whirlwinds of ex- 
citement, the creation of this office was a most wise 
and Ijoncficent measure. Such an office properly filled, 
and its duties properly enforced by the United States, 
would have saved to society some of the w^orst features 
of the California '49 Inferno. 

In the absence of other imperial authority, execu- 
tive or judicial, the gold commissioner was both gov- 
ernor and judge. He was guardian of government 
interests and custodian of government property within 
his jurisdiction. In such places, where one but not 
both the offices of gold commissioner and justice of 
the peace were filled, t]ie former fulfilled all the func- 
tions of the latter, and vice versa, appeal being had to 
the supreme court from penalties beyond thirty days' 
imprisonment or a fine of twenty pounds. Mining- 
disputes were determined absolutely by the gold com- 
missioner, who, without a jury, was sole judge of law 
and facts. In the larger districts, mining boards were 
instituted, consisting of six or twelve members, elected 
by the free miners, with power to make and execute 
mining regulations, subject to the approval of the 
governor. 

Under the gold-fields act of 1859, it was ordained 
that mining claims must all be, as nearly as possible, 
rectangular in form, marked by four pegs, the size, 
when not otherwise locally established, to be for dry- 
diggings twenty-five by thirty feet, or if bar-diggings, 
a strip twenty-five feet in width across the bar from 
higli-Avater mark down into the river; quartz claims 
one hundred feet along the seam. The first discoverer 
of a mine was entitled to two claims, or, if a party of 



412 ADMINISTRATIOX 0? JUSTICE. 

four or five were first discoverers, then a claim and a 
half each. Claims must be registered^ and could only 
be legally transferred by entry at the gold commis- 
sioner's office. Ditch and leased auriferous lands were 
under seven special regulations. 

Simultaneously with the appointment of Douglas 
as governor of the Mainland, that is to say, the 2d 
of September 1858, a commission Avas issued by the 
imperial government to Matthew Baillie Begbie as 
chief-justice of British Columbia, since which time 
to the present writing, through all the vicissitudes of 
consolidation and confederation, he has continued to 
hold it. 

It was proclaimed by the governor at Victoria the 
8th of June 1859, that this should be the supreme 
court of civil justice, with jurisdiction in criminal 
cases as well. Begbie was at first commissioned only 
for the Mainland, and early in 1860 he took up his 
residence at New Westminster; but after no small 
talk among the magnates of the three governments, 
home and colonial, he became chief-justice of the 
whole of British Columbia, superseding Needham at 
Victoria, where he afterward resided. 

Accompanied by his high-sheriff, Nicoll, and by his 
clerk and registrar, Bushby, the 28th of March 1859, 
Mr Justice Begbie began a notable journey, notable 
by reason of the shortness of the journey, and for the 
length of its description.^ A report of the trip was 
addressed to Governor Douglas, who sent it to the 
duke of Newcastle, who gave it to the geographical 
society people, who printed it, which, when done, 
nothing more remained to be said of it; for the infor- 
mation it contains, however interesting at the time, 
is of little present or permanent value. 

David Cameron was permitted by act of the 11th of 
March 1864, to retire from the judiciary of Vancou- 
ver Island on a pension of five hundred pounds ster- 

^It occupies eleven pages of the London Gco<j. Soc, Journal, xxxi. 237-48. 



I*IATTHEW BAILLIE BEGBIE. 423 

ling per annum, to be paid out of the general revenue 
of the colony. 

A little tracasserie attended Needham's retire- 
ment. The act of union terminated the court offices. 
Notice to that effect was served, among others, on Beg- 
bie and Needham, but accompanying Begbie's notice 
was his commission as judge of British Columbia. 
Needham took exceptions to Governor Seymour's 
abolition of the office of chief-justice on the Island, 
and appealed to England, and for a time he managed 
to sustain himself in his position. An anomalous state 
of affairs ensued. For a time there were two dis- 
tinct judicial establishments, with nothing coordinate 
or subordinate between them; each was independent 
of the other, and neither possessed jurisdiction further 
than before the union. Begbie was the commissioned 
judge of British Columbia, and Needham was hold- 
ing court upon the strength of what was, prior to 
the union, chief -justice of Vancouver Island. The 
source of the trouble was in the framing of the 
union bill, which, while consolidating every other 
branch of the colonial government, left the courts as 
distinct as ever. The Island office was finally in due 
form abolished, and Sir jMatthew reigned alone 

Probably more than to any one person the com- 
monwealth of British Columbia owes obligation to 
j\Ir Begbie for its healthful ordinances, for the wise 
and liberal provisions of its government, and for the 
almost unbroken reign of peace and order during his 
long term of office. More than an}'- person I have 
met in my long historical pilgrimage from Darien to 
Alaska, he was the incarnation of justice, the embodi- 
ment of that restraining influence which society is so 
strangely forced to place upon its members, a man 
most truly sans _29eit?' et sans rcproche. Setting aside 
his early training, his education, which gave him 
great advantage over hi-^ associates, and placii g him 
upon the plane of inherent manhood, there were none 
to match him. Ph^'sically as fearless as Tod, Mc- 



424 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

Tavish, or Yale, in that liigliest attribute of human- 
ity, moral courage, he far surpassed Douglas. 

In studying the requirements of the colony, in 
maturing plans for the administration of affairs, and 
in bringing in and punishing offenders, Mr Begbie 
was ever active, "Although invested with the very 
important office of judge," wrote Lytton to Douglas, 
"he will nevertheless have the kindness, for the pres- 
ent at least, to lend you his general aid for the com- 
pilation of the necessary laws," which was efficiently 
and faithfully done. For, reporting to the earl of 
Newcastle the 26th of January 1860, the governor 
says: "The day after the arrival of Mr Begbie, the 
judge, he accompanied me to British Columbia, and 
after his return to Victoria, he was of the greatest 
assistance to me in discharging the functions of 
attorney-general, which office he kindly fulfilled with 
the concurrence of her majesty's government. Since 
the arrival at Victoria of the attorney-genera], Mr 
Begbie has passed long periods in and has been on 
circuit over the greater portion of British Columbia, 
and his personal communications to me upon his return 
have been most valuable, and have assisted me mate- 
rially in framing laws, and in adapting the general 
system of government to the actual requirements of 
the people." 

He was an eccentric man, but his eccentricities 
seemed always to take a sensible direction. Unlike 
Needham, he came to the colony while yet his brain 
was active and his thouo'hts orioinal and fresh, and 
before being wholly and hopelessly bound to the ser- 
vice of foolish traditions. He was an ardent lover of 
music, and also of athletic sports.^ 

It is impossible that such a man should live witliout 

^ On the 29th of January 1859 the Victoria Philharmonic Society was or- 
ganized, with the chief-justice as president; Selim Franklin, vice-iiresident; 
Arthur D. Bushby, secretary; Alexander F. Main, treasurer; John Baily, con- 
ductor; and Augustus Pemberton, A. C. Anderson, Joseph Porter, James 
Leigh, B. W. Pearse, Lumley Franklin, and James F. Crowly, directors. 
Victoria Gazette, Feb. 1, 1859. 



D. G. FORBES MACDON^\XD. 425 

making enemies. Every bad man was his enemy. 
Every sycophant ; every pohtician whose ambition was 
greater than his honesty; every coward who dare not 
maintain the right in the face of pubhc opinion ; every 
schemer for personal profit or advancement at the 
expense of pubHc good — these and the hke were his 
natm-al opponents. With Douglas, who loved too 
well at times to try to reconcile public polity to per- 
sonal caprice or interest, and at other times would 
ignore legal forms altogether, he was not always on 
the best of terms. As to the succeeding governors, 
who were most of them professional politicians, serving 
for place or pay, he troubled himself but little about 
them. His own duty was always plain, and he did 
it; and the service he rendered was a fit sequel to 
that so well begun by the Hudson's Bay Company. 
Considering the circumstances surrounding the begin- 
ning, the unruly wild men and the unruly gold-gath- 
erers, society during these incipient stages w^as, I say, 
a marvel of order and obedience to law. 

It is true that when lawless men first flocked in 
along the Eraser, and began shooting natives after 
their old fashion, with as little compunction as they 
would shoot deer, the Indians retaliated, and between 
the two there w^ere many murders. But when the 
miners found by experience that crimes committed 
upon the person of a savage were as swiftly and as 
severely punished as were crimes committed by sav- 
ages, they w^ere more careful how they threw their 
shots about. 

I have found no one more ready to find fault with 
the administration of justice, as indeed with most 
other matters in the early days, than D. G. Forbes 
Macdonald, wdio with many initials of honor to his 
rame wrote a book^ on this country in 1862, elegant 
enough in typography and paper, but not wholly 
truthful. 

^ British Columbia and Vancouivr's Mand, compri4nii a descripiioii of the.H 
dependencies, etc. The book reached a third edition in 18G3. A later and 
much more reliaijle authority says: 'The x^eople are a law-abiding people, 



428 ADMIXISTEATION OF JUSTICE. 

" How is it that crime is on the increase ?" he ex- 
claims. '' Neither hfe nor property, female chastity, 
house nor home is safe from the depreciations of the 
many villains who sojourn there." " Because," he an- 
swers, "punishment is invariably over-lenient!" Were 
it any other writer I should regard his words as in- 
tended irony. Begbie over-lenient! The man is diffi- 
cult to please, and were he once on trial before Sir 
Matthew, as he deserved to be, he would erase from 
future editions the lies he has told, in which case, in- 
deed, there would be little left of his book. 

When we consider for how many unknown centu- 
ries the savaofes had been rio^hting^ their own wronc^s, 
how revenge with them was the highest form of jus- 
tice, how widely scattered they were, and so compara- 
tively little under the influence of white men, it is 
wonderful how quickly they were brought to place 
themselves under restraint, especially where white men 
Avere concerned. 

C. A. Bayley, coroner at Nanaimo in 1853, was 
cognizant of as many cool murders among the natives 
as one often finds in Christendom. "Indian law pre- 
vailed for many j^ears," he says, " until the colony bad 
formed a legislative and executive council, and the 
colonists felt they had the powder to enforce the laws." 

The natives were quite curious as to what was going 
on among the wdiite men, and would often come from 
a distance and in large numbers to see the strangers. 
They came down from Queen Charlotte Islands dur- 
ing summer, in bands of from five to fifteen hundred ; 
and the little colony at Fort Victoria, near which 
they encamped, was seriously frightened by them in 

crime of any serious moment being almost unknown. I should think it quite 
within the mark, that not more than one per cent of the Indian population of 
the upper countiy are found in our prisons, which speaks volumes in behalf of 
theu' respect for law, and may be said to be in part attributable, first, to their 
admirable management under the Hudson's Bay Company's regime ; second, to 
the impartial administration of justice; and third, to theefiforts made in their 
behalf by the various missionary enterprises which have been engaged under- 
taking to promote their truest welfare.' Good's IJist. B. C, MS., IIG. 



INDIAN -KILLING. 427 

1854. The Haiclalis were fierce and in bad repute; 
they had captured many white men, Laing, the ship- 
builder, and Benjamin Gibbs, and others from a 
United States vessel, and held them as slaves until 
ransomed. On this occasion, Douglas called his coun- 
cil to sit upon the matter, and loaded the fort guns; 
but the Haidahs did not mean mischief now. They 
only happened to remember this summer what their 
old warrior-god Belus had long ago told them of the 
coming of white men with whom they should shake 
hands and trade. 

During the Fraser excitement the savages as well 
as others swarmed at Victoria on their way to and 
from the mines, and so great was their love for the 
profligate life of civilization, that it was only by moral 
suasion and force combined that they could always be 
induced to move on. They were not long in learning 
how to dig for gold ; or, having it, how to dissipate it. 

I have noted the individual issues, seldom bloody, 
between the white fur-buyers and the red fur- 
sellers that sprang from this intercourse up to the 
time of settlement. Then came the affair ending in 
the appearance of Douglas with a vessel of war at 
Cowichin in 1853. The first old-fashioned American 
massacre in the interior of British Columbia wa-s that 
on Fraser Biver in 1858, when, if we may credit 
Waddington, the miners from California surprised and 
massacred thirty-three innocent persons of a friendly 
tribe.^ 

The brig Swiss Boy, Captain Welden, of San Fran- 
cisco, on the way from Port Orchard to Victoria, put 
into Xitinat Sound about the 31st of January 1859. 
Next day several hundred savages appeared, seized 
and stripped the vessel, and held the captain and 

^Vowell, Mining Districts B. C, ]MS., 31-2, states that on this occasion 
fifty men under one Snyder, an American, made the onslaught, and that great 
sutluring followed the survivors of the massacre, in which all tiieir food w:is 
destroyed. Ballon, Adr., MS., 12, affirms that the Indians first killed wliite 
men, and that the slaughtered under Snyder numbered eighteen, and tlxat 
thij was the only Indian war there. 



428 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

crew prisoners for several days, they at length luckily 
escaping with their lives. The Satellite immediately 
^vent and recovered the briof and cara^o, which was of 
lumber, but everything that could be carried away 
was missing. 

Seventy canoes from Queen Charlotte Islands with 
six hundred Haidahs on board entered Victoria Har- 
bor on the 30th of March. And these were but the 
vanguard of a general convention reported by the 
steamer Laboucliere as on the way hither. They en- 
camped near Finlayson's farm, and the whole town 
turned out to see them. The company consisted of 
men, women, and children, with their effects. A 
second arrival the 21st of April increased the number 
to thirteen hundred. A few of them had a very little 
gold-dust to sell. Besides the Haidahs, there were 
Stikeens, Chimsyans, Bellacoolas, and other savages, 
numbering in all at the encampment three thousand 
persons. Their visit was to them apparently very 
pleasant ; they traded a little, drank a great deal, and 
if there be anything worse they did that too. Vic- 
toria grew uneasy under the association, and invited 
the redskins to leave. 

A party sent out in 1864 by Waddington to open 
a trail from Butte Inlet across the Chilkotin plains 
toward Fort Alexandria, was attacked the 30th of April 
and thirteen out of seventeen slain. Interference with 
their women on the part of the white men had so 
exasperated the Chilkotins that they resolved to rid 
themselves of the evil by the most direct means. A 
pack-train under McDonald, en route from Bentinck 
Arm to Fort Alexandria was attacked three weeks 
later by the Chilkotins at Nancootioon Lake. Three 
were killed and several wounded. The savages took 
the train worth $5,000, and committed other murders 
in the vicinity. The marines at New Westminster, 
and volunteers from Victoria and elsewdiere, set out 
immediately and caught a portion only of the mur- 
derers, and with the loss of McLean of the Hudson's 



I 



WARLIKE SCENES. 429 

Bay Company. The criminals caught were tried and 
hanged.^ 

Ill the autumn of this year, Capcha, chief of the 
Ahousets, decoyed the trading schooner Khigfisher to 
the shore near Clayoquot, pretending that he had some 
oil to sell. Then Capcha and his warriors killed the 
captain and crew, and plundered the vessel. H. M. S. 
Devastation and Admiral Denman in the Sutlej lias- 
tcncd to the spot and demanded the offenders, and as 
they failed to appear, opened fire and destroyed several 
villages. Yet on the whole Capcha regarded his busi- 
ness operation as a success. The Clio the following 
year was obliged to throw a shell into a native village 
near Fort Rupert before the inhabitants would give 
up a murderer. 

These events are the nearest approach to war 
between the natives and the settlers of British 
Columbia that I have to record. The savages fought 
each other lustily, and it was some time before the 
law thought best to interfere. Even the superrefined 
race sometimes saw things in a violently different 
manner. There was what was called in local annals 
the Grouse Creek war, which was a dispute between 
tlie Canadian Company and the Grouse Creek Flume 
Company. 

Some ground claimed by the Grouse Creek Flume 
Company was in the early part of the season of 1867 
'jumped' by the Canadian Company and held in 
violation of the orders of the sheriff. That official 
accordingly organized at Williams Creek a small army 
of several dozen men, armed them with such weapons 
and such nerve-and-muscle-generating equipments as 
the service required, and marched over the mountain- 
trail like Lochinvar. The Canadians doggedly refused 
to surrender. Governor Sejanour then went into the 
field and succeeded in compromising matters so far as 
to arrange for a new trial. John Grant, the head of 

^GoofVsB. a, MS., 39-42; Bm/leys V. I., MS., 5G-7; Wh/mpcr's Alasha, 
52-6; Victoria Chronicle, May 14, iSG4; Portland Adv., May 21, lSo4. 



433 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

the Canadian Company, was meanwhile committed to 
prison for three months for contempt; the remainder 
of his rebelHous company being let off each with two 
days' imprisonment. Several months later Judge Need- 
ham decided the case adversely to the claims of the 
Canadian Company.^ 

The iiiners of Cariboo did not like Mr Justice 
Begbie's method of construing their mining laws ; so 
they met in mass-meeting, the 23d of June 18G6, and 
denounced him, after which they felt better, although 
the chief-justice still lived. It was the largest con- 
course ever convened in the colony, they said, and I 
may add, the most foolish. It was the peculiar way that 
Begbie had of setting aside the verdicts of their juries 
and the decisions of their gold commissioners when 
manifestly illegal and absurd that they did not like. 
He was arbitrary, partial, and dictatorial, they said, 
and they desired his removal and a court of appeal. 
Nevertheless, simultaneously with tlie publication of 
these proceedings, comes the report of the foreman of 
the grand jury of Cariboo, who ''is highly pleased to 
notice the absence of all crime in the district," wliich, 
indeed, was the stereotyped clause in all grand-jury 
reports throughout the country all through Begbie's 
entire term. He was loudly complained of by a certain 
class at New Westminster, Lilloet, and Victoria; never- 
theless he continued his course, retained his place, and 
w^as finall}^ knighted in recognition of his services, 
as he richly deserved. 

Beofbie was almost as o-ood as a vigfilance committee ; 
sometimes quite as good ; ofttimes even better. There 

« Victoria Colonist, July 23, Aug. 6, 13, 20, 27, Sept. 10, Oct. 1, 8, Nov. 5, 
1867; Heio Westminster Columbian, May 11; i?. C. Examr., July 27 ami Aug. 
28, 18(57. See also, for the Queen Charlotte Islanders and other Indian troubles, 
Victoria Gazette, i. Nos. 10, 27, 29, 30-2, 35, 44, 46, 59, and 01, 1858, ii. 39; 
House Com. Rept., H. B. Co., 1857, 192; Cariboo Sentinel, i. 1; Olym-pia Pioneer 
and Democrat, March IS, 1859; 'Colmb. Missn., 8th Eept., 36; Gov. Gazette, ii. 
No. 8; Sproat's Scenes, 9; VoioelVs Min. Dists., MS., 31-2; Brit. Col. Sketches, 
MS., 29; Olympia Club Convs., MS., 13-15; Deans' Settlement V. I., MS., 20-4; 
Douglas' Private Papers, MS., 2d ser. 34-6. 



DIPtECT JUSTICE. 431 

wore ill his rulings the intensity and directness which 
render popular tribunals so terrible to evil-doers with- 
out the heat and passion almost always inseparable 
from illegal demonstrations. Although in common 
with jurists generally he placed law before justice, 
suffering the guilty to escape and go in search of 
further prey provided they could not be convicted by 
the book, yet he never was so blinded by the book as 
to take wrong for right because the law affirmed it. 
And he would sometimes do right even in spite of 
the law. 

All through his long and honorable career he was 
more guardian than judge. He was not satisfied to 
sit upon the bench and with owl-like gravity listen 
to the wranglings of counsel hired for the defeating 
of the law's intention, and with much winking and 
blinking to decide according to law and then go uncon- 
cernedly to dinner. He felt the peace and good- 
behavior of the whole country to be his immediate 
care, and woe to any constable or magistrate derelict 
in his duty in bringing criminals to justice. Babine 
Lake was no farther from his arm than Government 
street, and an injury done an Indian or a Chinaman 
was as sure of prompt punishment as in the case of a 
white man. 

The consequence of it all was that never in the 
pacification and settlement of any section of America 
have there been so few disturbances, so few crimes 
against life or property. And wdien w^e consider the 
clashing elements that came together just as Begbie 
reached the country, the nature and antecedents of 
these wild, rough, and cunning men, it is wonderful. 
First of all there was the savage, physically unweak- 
ened thus far by contact with Europeans, though in 
mind subdued somewhat by the more comprehensive 
intelligence of the shrewd Scotchmen. The country was 
his, and he was as fierce and as ready to fight for it as 
ever. The fur-traders were their friends, but these 
interlopers who seized their lands and robbed them of 



432 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

their gold were their enemies whom it were righteous 
to kill. The ancient professional prospectors and dig- 
gers with whom the gold-fields of the north were plen- 
tifully sprinkled, were many of them but little higher 
in the scale of humanity than the Indians. Among 
them were many despicable men who regarded the 
natives as brutes whom to kill was no crime. Add to 
this the presence of intelligent and good men who 
were the real dominators of the realm, and scatter 
them over a wilderness area of five hundred miles 
square, and we may form some faint conception of what 
it was to hold the inhabitants in order. And yet the 
intensity of character and personal influence of the 
chief-justice were everywhere felt. His presence per- 
meated the remotest parts of the country like that of 
no other man. When once it was understood by sav- 
age and civilized alike that justice in his hands was 
swift, sure, and inflexible, the battle was won. No 
one cared to kill, being sui'e he would hang for it. 

It is not often we hear from the bench such refresh- 
ing words as frequently fell from his lips. They puri- 
fied the atmosphere, so that even Ned McGowan 
found it somewhat stifling, as we have seen. ''There 
were not many of that class on Fraser River," said 
Billy Ballou. "They soon cleaned them out there. 
Old Jud^e Beo^bie soon made them understand who 
was master. I saw a fellow named Gilchrist," he con- 
tinued, "who had killed two men in California, on 
trial there. He killed a man on Beaver Lake, in the 
Cariboo country, who was gambling with him. While 
sitting at the table a miner came in, threw dow^n his 
bag of gold-dust, bet an ounce, and won. Gilchrist 
paid; the man bet again, and won again, flippantly 
inquiring of the gambler if there was any other game 
he could play better, as he drew in the stakes. Gilchrist 
took oflence at the remark, and lifting his pistol shot 
him dead. Gilchrist was tried, and the jury brought 
in a verdict of manslaughter. Turning to the prisoner, 
the judge said: "It is not a pleasant duty for me to 



RIGHTEOUS JUDGES. 433 

have to sentence you only to prison for life. Your 
crime was unmitigated murder. You deserve to be 
hanged. Had tlie jury performed their duty, I might 
now have the painful satisfaction of condemning you 
to death. And you, gentlemen of the jury, permit 
me to say that it would give me great pleasure to see 
you hanged, each and every one of you, for bringing 
in a murderer guilty only of manslaughter." 

Sproat tells some good stories emanating from his 
experiences as magistrate in 1864, one of Avhich was 
an attempt at an inquest at Alberni over the body of 
a native shot unintentionally to death, while stealing 
potatoes, by a pea-loaded gun in the hands of an 
American. Determined to close their eyes to the 
facts, the jury first brought in a verdict of " worried by 
a dog," and when returned from a second attempt, 
found "he was killed by falling over a cliff." The 
American was finally sent in charge of a constable to 
Victoria, but effected his escape. 

The stipendiary magistrates, or county-court judges, 
at the time of confederation, were A. D. Bushby, 
Xew Westminster; W. R. Spaulding, Nanaimo and 
Comox; P. O'Reilly, Northern Mines; A. F. Pem- 
berton, Victoria ; E. H. Saunders, Lilloet ; H. M. 
Ball, Cariboo. Salaries, from $2,250 to $3,400. 

An act was passed by the province of British Co- 
lumbia March 2, 1874, for the better administration 
of justice, but failed to receive the governor-general's 
confirmation The county judges did not approve of 
a certain provision of this act which enabled the lieu- 
tenant-governor in council to appoint the times and 
places at which court should be held; hence they 
petitioned against the act. An act enabling the lieu- 
tenant-governor to divide the country into C(junty- 
court districts was passed the following year. 

There were other righteous judges in the land; and 
in due time the peojile began to like justice and hate 
bribery and corru[)tion. Those who cared least for 
popularity became the most popular. On his way 

Hist. Bkit. Col. 28 



434 ADMIXISTRATIOX OF JUSTICE. 

across the country in 1872 Grant talked with tlieni 
about it/ 

Since 1874 the influence of the mounted police of 
the Northwest Territory has been felt along the ])or- 
der. Numbering in all about three hundred, and es- 
tablished in camps of from fifty to seventy-five men, 
their presence in those wild, thinly peopled regions 
was most beneficial. They wore the scarlet uniform 
of the British army, and made it their business to 
protect at once border settlers and travqllers from hos- 
tile bands of natives, and well disposed natives from 
white ruffians and liquor- sellers. This was a Cana- 
dian rather than a British Columbian institution; the 
nearest port available on the western slope was about 
one hundred miles from Kootenai. 

Shortly after taking up his residence at Metlahkat- 
lah, Duncan, the missionary, was requested by the 
colonial government to act as magistrate. It was 
an exceedingly strange mixture, both of duties and 
material, that this man found himself called upon to 
encounter. Here was law and barbarism, divinity 
and demonism, incoherently mingled until the poor 
fellow scarcely knew his own mind. The liquor traffic 
troubled him exceedingly, and also the retaliation prin- 
ciple of the natives, who murdered the last murderer, 
in theory at least, ad infinitum, until none were left 
to kill. Three Indians murdered two white men. 
The natives gave up two of the murderers, a life for a 
life being their idea of justice; the other, after six 
months, gave himself up, was sent to New Westmin- 
ster to be tried, and was acquitted. This was brought 
about by the magistrate by means of his religious 
influence. 

' ' There isn't the gold in British Cohimbia that would bribe Judge 
O'Reilly, was their emphatic indorsement of his dealings with the miners. 
They descriVed him arriving as the representative of British law and order 
at Kootanie, immediately after thousands had flocked to the ne-wly discovered 
gold-mines there. Assembling them, he said that order nmst and would be 
kept, and advised them not to display their revolvers unnecessarily, ' ' for, boys, 
if there is shooting in Kootanie there will be hanging;" such a speech was 
after the miners' own hearts, and after it there were no more disturbances in 
Kootanie. ' 



POPULAR TRIBUNALS. 435 

Convict labor began to be utilized in 1859. The 
jail at Victoria was then the general receptacle for 
Island and Mainland, and in it were some sturdy fel- 
lows with nothing to do but to attempt escape. The 
chain-gang sj^stem was then adopted, and finally a 
penitentiary was built. To George W. Bell belongs 
the honor of being the first white man hanged on 
Vancouver Island, which was done on the 5th of 
November 1872, for killing one Datson the previous 
:^Iay. 

It was perhaps more difHcult than might be im- 
agined for a person to commit a theft or a murder, and 
escape the country. Obviously his way out by water 
was difficult, for every movement on the coast was 
watched. Then, throughout the interior, the natives 
were always ready to lend their aid, as of old, in 
catching criminals; and they constituted a w^idely 
extended, swift, and sure police. 

In the inmiediate vicinity of the United States bor- 
der it was more difficult to maintain order. Horses were 
})ientiful. No man so poor that he could not own one ; 
or if he was, he mio-jit steal from his neio^hbor. Hence 
to place himself, if not beyond the reach of justice, at 
least where justice soon became entangled in difficul- 
ties, the offender had but to mount and ride southerly. 
On Perry Creek, where in 1871 w^as a customs station, 
a case occurred, insignificant in itself, but illustrative 
of the times and place. A merchant received one day 
some hams in bond, on which he had not the money 
to pay the duty. A hungry miner swore he would 
have a ham; the merchant offered no objection; so 
attended by several comrades, he proceeded to the 
edifice called the custom-house, kicked open the door, 
and carried away a ham. Swearing in special officers, 
Carrington, the constable, after a show of fight on the 
part of the ofTenders, succeeded in arresting tliem and 
conveying them, ironed, to the jail at Wild Horse 
Creek. Haynes, the Kootenai judge, being absent, 
Carrington, after waiting a while, started with his 



436 ADMESriSTRATION OF JUSTICE, 

prisoners for Victoria, intending to commit them there 
for trial. But meeting Haynes on the way, the party 
returned, and the prisoners were finally discharged 
on condition of their leaving the country. 

I have often been assured, and by those who should 
know, that there never was a case of popular or illegal 
hanging in British Columbia. Sir Redmond Barry 
made the same statement to me regarding Australia. 
I am satisfied that my informants were in error regard- 
ing both countries.^ A mob may sometimes catch and 
hano^ a man, makino- little stir about it. A hano'ino^ 
scrape at Jack of Clubs Creek in the Cariboo country 
in 1862 is mentioned by B. Byron Johnson in Very 
Far West Indeed. While the writer cannot be called 
a very truthful or reliable man, judging from all the 
circumstances, I do not think this story is wholly 
fiction. 

While Johnson was absent from his claim, his 
partner, Jake Walker, engaged a man at Williams 
Creek to help him sink his shaft a few feet lower. 
One day, while Walker was in the shaft and the 
hired man at the windlass, the latter deserted his 
post, robbed Walker's cabin, and leaving the owner 
in the ditch to die, make tracks across the mountain. 
Contrary to the villain's expectations, Walker suc- 
ceeded in climbing out. The first question with 
Walker was then whether he should pursue the man 
alone, and kill him, or summon the neighbors to his 
assistance. He chose the latter course. The man 
was caught, brought back to the cabin, and there 
tried by the miners, and executed.^ 

In my Popular Trihunals, i. 644-51, I have given several cases of arbi- 
trary justice, a native, however, being generally the victim. 

^ My authorities for this chapter, which I am obliged to make brief, are 
Allans Cariboo, MS., 19; Finlaysons V. I., MS., 101, which says of Begbie: 
' He dealt out justice with a stern and vigorous hand, and was a terror to 
evil-doers, especially in the gold excitement of '58 and after years;' Ballou's 
Adv., MS., 10, 11; Voivell's Mining Districts, MS., 3-6; Deans Settlement V. 
I., MS., 14; Waddingtons Fraser J?iver, 20; Grant's Ocean to Ocean, 315-16; 
Hayes' Scraps, iii. 6Q; Ohjmpia Standard, Nov. 16, 1872; Consolidated Laws, 
B. C, \S11; Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxxi. 243, 247-8; Victoria Gazette, Dec. 
^0, 1858; Victoria Direct., 1803, 179-89; Isbister's Proposal, passim; Eevised 



AUTHORITIES 437 

Laws, B. C, 1871; Gem. Gazette, Aug. 9, 1873; Cariboo Sentinel, June 25 and 
July 2, ISGG; Peinberton's V. I., 128-9; Nanaimo Free Press, April 22, 1874; 
Forbes' Essay, 32; Colonist, Jan. 19, 1864; Apr. 10, June 11, Dec. 11, 18G6; 
Nov. 26, 1867; Jan. 30, Aug. 29, 31, Sept. 2, Dec. 17, 1869; Feb. 9, Aug. 24, 
1870; Feb. 22, Dec. 30, 1871; Dec. 18, 1872; July 28, Aug. 6, 10, 12, 15, 18, 
25, 29, Sept. 26. Oct. 10, Nov. 4, 1875; March 4, June 2, Nov. 15, 1876; 
Constitution Sup. Court Acts and Or., 1858-70; Sprout's B. C, 32; Sessional 
Papers, 1877, 437; Standard, May 21, 23, 1877; New Westminster Herald, 
Aug. 9, 1873; Milton and Cheadles JV. W. Pwis, 341; Barrett-Lennard's B. C, 
61-3; 3rarfie's B. C, 460-1; Mayne's B. C, 58-70; Johnsons Very Far West, 
108; SproiU's Scenes, 44-9, 72-7. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

ERASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

1858-1878. 

New Developments in the History of Mining — Character of the Mines 
^Mining Towns — Sluicing at Hope and Yale — Routes to the Dig- 
gings — Steam on the Eraser — Boats Ascend to Hope and Yale — 
Extension of Mining Area — Rush to Lytton — Roads — Prospectors 
Push Northward— Bars Named — Field — Region Round Lilloet— 
Fountain, Canoe, Quesnel, and Thompson Mines— Quartz on Cherry 
Creek — The Mines of the Eraser Valley — Character of the Dry- 
diggings — Terrace Composition — Gold Distribution and Yield. 

It is as necessary to tell what the Californians who 
sought gold on the Fraser River did not find, as to 
tell what they did find; that is to say, what failed 
them in their expectations, and what they found new 
which will profitably illustrate the mining history of 
the coast. 

First of all, then, the forbidding grandeur of the 
Fraser canon overwhelmed them, and drove thou- 
sands of them southward no richer than they came. 
Nevertheless, despite this reaction, the country was 
settled; towns were built; and in the course of sev- 
eral years after the Fraser excitement, mineral re- 
sources and lines of transportation were developed in 
the great northern interior of the Pacific slope, which - 
were destined to assume a national and continental 
significance. The temporary drawbacks were due to 
the physical features with which the advancing tide 
of population had to grapple. No road nor trail prac- 
ticable for animals existed along the Fraser canon 
during the early stages of the gold excitement, so that 



THE FROWNINe; FKASER. 439 

it was quite impossible to follow up and to support 
any large number. Hence all but a few fell back 
until the completion of the road, which Douglas 
caused to be opened through the western rim of the 
high plateau. 

The twenty thousand who went to Fraser Kivcr 
from California in 1858 were warned that the bar3 
where gold was reported would remain inaccessible 
on account of the high water until after midsummer, 
and that to wait for the opportunity to mine in that 
wilderness w^ould be costly, to say the least, and might 
be death. ^ But reasoning from their experience in 
California, too little importance was attached to this 
feature of the new mines, as it was concluded that in 
the mean time the ravines and the smaller tributaries 
could be more or less profitably worked. But here 
arose the first and most grievous disappointment. 
They found no ravine diggings like those- in the 
mountain counties of California, with gold lying in a 
concentrated form on the bed-rock, and the latter ex- 
posed by the eroding streams. Such of the higher 
bars of the Fraser as were accessible, including the 
flats occasionally forming the banks of the river, and 
prospected in the early stage of the mining excitement, 
failed even to yield the prospects of the American and 
Yuba rivers. It was almost entirely fine gold dis- 
tributed in thin streaks of gravel and sand, and 
through the benches and terraces of the hills and 
valleys running back often far from the river. That 
fine gold was also found concentrated in really rich 
deposits in some of these bars is beyond a doubt, but 
it consisted of thin layers or lenticular patches, covered 

^ Fraser River is at flood height anmially in June and Jul3% An-owsmitli's 
Mnp of B. C, London, 1859. Its gold-ltearing bars are really accessible to 
advantage only for a few months in the autunm. After Koveniber the frosts 
set in, and mining can bo followed only at intervals during the winter. After 
the severe weather and before the snows are melted, between February and 
April, there were two months of favoralde mining season. Although there is 
low water c.bout the 1st of January, both the climatic conditions, and M-here 
(juicksilver is used, the amalgamating conditions are unfavorable at that time. 
Simple and well known as were these facts by the settlers, the miners of 1S58 
paid dearly before they became ac(iuainteil with them. 



440 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

frequently by very heavy masses of barren ground. 
In this respect it was comparable to the higher ground 
deposits of the ancient rivers of California, the profit- 
able handling of which rendered indispensable an out- 
let grade and the use of the hydraulic pipe. On the 
Harrison and other tributaries coarse gold was to be 
found. 

Before the river fell, thousands had left the country 
under the conviction that the water would never fall 
sufficiently, or that they had seen enough; yet the 
diggings were overcrowded when this event took 
place, notwithstanding the fact that the size of the 
claims was limited to twenty-five feet square. Those 
who had no claims, or whose claims were worked out, 
advanced up the river, clambering over the rocks of 
the canon in the direction of the fork of the Thomp- 
son, where there was room enough for all who could 
obtain supphes. The greatest number were employed 
between Hope and Yale, but among the best diggings 
were those at the Fountain, six miles above the great 
falls, and for some time the northern limit of mining.^ 
From Murderer or Cornish Bar, four miles below 
Hope, innumerable bars, signifying simply accessible 
river-bottom formed by the angles in the current, were 
prospected, and most of them worked, for a distance 
of 140 miles along the Fraser, and along the Thomp- 
son to a point fifteen miles above the mouth of tlie 
Nicola.^ Nearly all of these were wiped out of 
memory as the inhabitants migrated and the traces 
of their existence were washed away by the recurring 
floods of the rivers; so that a few only have found a 
permanent place in the geography of the country. 

The first place above Langley which contained gold 
in appreciable quanity was Maria Bar, between the 
Sumas and Harrison, followed by Murderer Bar, four 

2 A few of the adventurers penetrated to the Canoe country in latitude 51° 
30', named after Canoe Creek, a tributary of the Fraser, where Simon Fraser 
in 1S08 left his canoes. Nuijent, in U. S. Ex. Doc, iii., Sotli Comj., 2d Sens.; 
Allan's Cariboo, MS., 1-4. 

^ Wadd'uKjtons Fraser Mines, 8. 



GOLD-BEARING BARS. 441 

miles below Hope, and subsequently known as Cornish 
Bar.* Between these existed other bars which were 
disregarded at first, owing to the fineness of their gold. 
Tlie localities above Hope are given as Mosquito, or 
Poverty, Fifty-four Forty, Union, Canadian, Santa 
Clara, Deadwood, Express, American, Puget Sound, 
Victoria, Yankee Doodle, Eagle, Alfred, Sacramento, 
Texas Hunter, Emory, Pocky, Trinit}^ Hill, Casey, 
Yale.^' 

It was observed by Douglas that the bars grew 
richer in ascending order, Hill Bar being the best, 
and appearing to bear a resemblance to some of the 
river bars of California. Discovered early in 1858® 
by Hill, an American, it progressed so rapidly that 
in September Douglas laid out a town here on the 
system followed at Hope. Two months later, the bar 
proper being worked out, the benches were resorted 
to, and in 1859 a ditch was constructed at a cost of 
twelve thousand dollars, which yielded a monthly 
profit of fifty per cent. This ground also declined, 
and the population was transferred to Yale.^ 

In June 1858, the miners were distributed between 
Langley and the canon thirty or forty miles above 
Yale, and advancing in successive stages toward the 
Forks, where it was known that the authors of the 
Eraser excitement, had been mining successfully dur- 

* Douglas found 125 men at work here in September 1858, and doing fairly. 
Private Papers, MS., i. 103; Trutch's Map of B. C, 1871. 

^ To these may be added Cameron Bar, which was discovered by Thomas 
Spence, a steamer striking the bar and revealing the gold to him. VowelCs B. C 
Mines, MS., 2(5-7. Waddington's list of bars is the most complete, as given 
in Victorii Gazette, Sept. 15, 1858. Douglas records a shorter list at the same 
time, in Private Papers, MS., i. 104-5. Trutch's Map, 1871, locates Ameri- 
can first, then Emory, and I'exas Bar last and next to Yale. ComwalUs N. 
El Dorado, 285. O'Reilly, the gold commissioner in 1 800, mentions also Trafal- 
gar and French bars, and by Cornish Bar, below Hope, he places Prospect, 
Blue Nose, and Hudson bars. B. C. Papers, iv. 10. Several of the bars 
cannot be exactly located. 

•'It Mas here that the first discovery of gold upon the lower Eraser was 
made, Emory's and Union being found next, followed by Chapman's and Bos- 
ton, above Yale. Allans Cariboo, MS., 1-4. Waddiugton names Hill as 
tlie richest, then Emory, Texas, and Puget Sound; the poorest as Fifty-four 
Forty, Express, and Yale. Victoria Ga-,elte, Sept. 15, 1858. 

'Soon every vestige of Hill Bar was gone. Cornirallis' JV. El Dorado, 195; 
Doutjlas Private Papers, ilS., scr. i. 103-i, 10«3; Powers Col. Empire, i. 131. 



442 



FRASER RIVER MIXING AXB SETTLEMENT. 



ing the winter and spring, till scarcity of supplies and 
high water obliged them to retreat. By October, 
according to official estimates, a population of ten 
thousand was distributed along the river. The num- 
ber between Cornish Bar and Yale, in November, 
was four thousand, Hope contained four hundred 




The Lower Mining Region. 

more, and Yale thirteen hundred.^ In Hope district 
an ounce a day was common w-ages, while some miners 
earned two or more ounces for weeks together; so 
that most of those who had been enofaofed with rock- 

^Doui/lufi, ill B. C. Papers, ii. 29. Waddington counted early in Sep- 
tember 800 rockers actually at work between Hope and Yale, and doing 
well. Victoria Gazette, Sept. 15, 18j8. Smith, of Kent and Smith's express, 
reported to the same paper, of Aug. 20th, that Fuget Sound Bar had 40 rockers 
and 120 men at work; Texas Bar, 8 companies, who were partly sluicing and 



SLUICES, DITCHES, AND FLUMES. 443 

ers on these bars up to Yale, returned at the close of 
the season of 1858, with from two to four thousand 
dollars clear of expenses. 

Toward Yale sluicing entered largely into mining 
operations, and the yield rose as high as twenty -five 
dollars a day to the man, although the general aver- 
age was considerabty lower. Occasionally rich strikes 
were made, and created more or less wide-spread ex- 
citement. In October 1858 the benches at Yale 
developed some coarse gold, and the miners were with 
difficulty restrained from digging away the town.^ 

Sluicing yielded about twice the return obtained 
with rockers, but as this method involved considerable 
preliminary and often costly labor, the wooden pail, 
pan, and rocker retained the favor of the majority. 
Man}- places, particularly the benches and higher 
ground, could not, however, be worked advantageously 
without ditches, and these came into use quite early 
in the season of 1858. Between Cornish Bar and 
Hope alone there were thirteen ditches in operation 
in November, and more in process of construction. ^° 
The yield of forty sluice-heads in April 1859 was six 
thousand dollars a day, and the ditch company at Hill 
Bar received five dollars a day from forty claims. ^^ 

making §15 to $40 to the hand; Sacramento Bar, 15 rockers; Emory, 36 
rockers, averaging §6 to §8 to the hand; Hill, 100 rockers and 400 men, 
averaging $1G; Yale, 9 companies, averaging §15 to §20 to the man. 

"The consequence was, however, that garden leases on the left bank 
between Hill Bar and Yale were refused, and the ground held for mining. 
Dou'jlas' Private Papers, MS., ser. i. 105-G. In May miners here made an 
ounce and a half a day. Id., 90. Victoria Gazette, Sept. 15, 1858, classes the 
Yale diggings among the poorer. Five sluices here yielded in August §25 a 
day to the hand. /(/., Aug. 24th; and on Aug. 13th the 150 rockers yielded 
723 ounces. Id., Aug. 25, 1858, .J/acA'e's V. I., 240. At Cameron Bar nineteen 
miners made each §75 a day for three weeks. VoiccWs B. C. Mines, JIS., 26-7; 
Cornwallis' A". Eldorado, 203-15. At Hill Bar the men were making from 
§2.50 to §25 a day. D. 0. Papers, iii. 9, etc. Ten claims, each with 26 feet 
frontage, produced in June, July, August, and part of September, §30,000. 
DoiKjlas' Private Papers^, MS., i. 106. Eight of these companies were making 
$15 to §40 a day to the hand. Victoria Gaaette, Aug. 20, 1858. 

^^ Some cabins erected in connection with one of these enterprises received 
the name of JNIariaville, after the steamer J/aria. VictoriaGazette, April 19, 1859. 

" Four men sluiced out §4,000 in six days. Douglas, in U. C. Papers, iii. 
9. At Hudson Bar, just below Cornish Bar, a flume a mile in length was in 
operation m April 1859; and still further down the river was a wheel 30 feet 
in diameter, used in raising water for a sluice which paid five dollars a day to 
the man. Victoria Gazelle, April 19, 28, 1859. 



444 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

In the spring of 1860, the Hope district was still 
occupied by over two hundred miners, who were mak- 
ing an average of six dollars a day on old ground. ^"^ 
This rate was approximately maintained for a long- 
time, chiefly by means of sluices, since the ground all 
along the river was in a sense inexhaustible. The 
winter of 1876—7 was particularly favorable for sluic- 
ing. The operations were desultory, however, and 
the field was left more open for Chinese and Indians, 
who followed improved methods, and continued year 
after year to dig up the bars and enter into the benches. 
Already in 1861 two thousand Chinese were digging 
around Yale.^^ 

During the first half of 1858, Langley was regarded 
as the head of steam navigation, and consequently as 
the centre of Eraser traffic, to which the Otter and the 
8ea Bird were making regular trips from Victoria. 
Deterred by the passage rate of twenty dollars, canoes 
ventured also to cross from Victoria and other points," 
and proceeded up the Eraser direct to Hope and Yale, 
while steamer passengers were often detained at Lang- 
ley for want of boats. This inconvenience induced the 
steamer Surprise to try the current above, and on June 
4th she reached Hope without difficulty, transferring 
by this coup the head of steamboat navigation to the 
latter place. But this was only for a while, since the 
feat of the Surprise was surpassed on July 21st, when 



1^ The official report for the spring gave Victoria Bar 40 men, earning $3 
to $5 a flay; Puget Sound, 50 men, $3 to $5 a clay; French, 15 men, $10 to 
$12 a day; Trafalgar, 9 men, .$5 to §7 a day; Mariaville, 10 men, $4 a day; 
Union, 20 men, $4 to $5 a day; Cornish, 15 men, $3 to $4 a day; Prospect, 6 
men, $4 a day; Blue Nose, 8 men, $4 a day; Hudson, 30 men, $8 to $10 a 
day. B. C. Papers, iv. 10. 

^^B. C. Papers, iv. 46. In 1865, the Chinese between Hope and Yale 
were making $2 to $5 a day. Macjie's V. I., 240-1. A company of Indians 
took out $1,800 near 18 Mile Post in the spring of 1877; and some San Fran- 
cisco capitalists applied for extensive terrace grounds opposite Yale. Eept. 
Min. Mines, 1872, 406-7. 

^■'On July G, 1858, 50 boats with 400 miners left Victoria for the Fraser. 
Victoria Gazette, July 7, 1858. The following night there arose a gale which 
caused much fear for their safety. Id., July 10th. On July 13th auother 
fleet of 75 boats left Victoria. Id., July 14th. 



RIVER NAVIGATION. 445 

the American boat Umatilla succeeded in reaching 
Yale, and made this the steamer terminus. In an- 
nouncing this triumph, Douglas informed the colonial 
office that he had licensed two American vessels to 
ply on the Eraser. He also claimed the merit on 
behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company of having laid 
in large supplies and tools for the miners, and of sell- 
ing them at barely remunerative prices; and yet, a 
month later, the papers were complaining of the mo- 
nopoly in Fraser trade and navigation in the interest 
of the Hudson's Bay Company. ^^ 

Canoes could readily come up to Yale near the falls, 
but beyond this the difficulty and danger of the jour- 
ney were appalling, even at low water. The obstacle 
consisted in the rapids of the lower canon, four miles 
above Yale, and in those of the great canon, eighteen 
miles below the Forks. The route by land along the 
Fraser, from Yale to Quayome, afterward Boston 
Bar, was a mere goat-track with inclines of thirty to 
thirty-six degrees, and with yawning precipices.^*' So 
long as the miners had to carry everything on their 
back through these canons, partly for want of horses, 
mining was necessarily retarded; for travelling to 
and fro with heavy loads was a severe task on 
energy, time, and labor, and this was besides in- 
terrupted by the snow and cold which set in with 
December. 

At Spuzzum, six miles above the Fraser falls and ten 
miles above Yale, an old horse-trail formerly reached 
the river from the Similkameen on the plateau, and 
followed the Kequeloose River for six miles. It had 
been opened in 1847-8, but was abandoned as im- 
practicable, chiefly on account of the break caused by 
the falls. When the miners came into the field the 

^^B. C. Papers, i. 23; Victoria GazHto, Sept. 2-t, 1S58; CormmlUx' K. 
El Doroilo, 170M:. The Entctyriie and J/c/va raised the freights in October 
from Victoria to Hope to §(50 a ton. Vktoria Guzette, Oct. 10, 1858. 

'"'Lieutenant Mayne declares it the roujihest trail he ever travelled. B. C. 
Papers, iii. 46. Justice Begbie, .\vlio went up this way in April 1859, and 
returned by Harrison River, remarks on thi^ roughness. Id., 17-24. 



446 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

route up the Fraser, first used by them, followed the 
old Kequeloose horse-trail away from the river some 
distance, and then descended along Anderson River 
to the Fraser at Boston Bar. From five to eight 
days were usually expended between Langiey and the 
falls, and thence onward, according to the load. 

Another route for which great advantages were 
claimed was by the Whatcom and Smess trail, con- 
tinuing along the Fraser to Hope, and thence across 
the mountains and along the plateau to Thompson 
River, by which it was possible to reach the mines 
above the caiion independently of canoe navigation 
and canons. ^^ 

The achievement of the Umatilla decided the ques- 
tion in favor of the more direct road along the west 
side of the Fraser, and the marches then on the 
Hope and plateau trails were transferred to it, when 
the part between Yale and Spuzzum was opened for 
pack-trains in August 1858. At Spuzzum a bridge had 
been constructed by Frank Wa}^, and a mile above 
he conducted the ferry which could carry ten loaded 
animals. Although the road was not yet quite clear, 
five hundred mules were on the way, and the first 
train reached the Forks September lOth.^^ Pedes- 
trians still preferred the foot-trail along the blufts, and 
in 1859 a ferry was established at Boston Bar, wdiich 
enabled them to pass by Spuzzum. This trail had 
the disadvantage of being blocked by snow early in 

^^ Some miners from Whatcom reached Hope by this trail about the first 
of July; but they were reported as sorry-looking objects, their ckithes torn to 
rags, and they were represented as ' cursing the Whatcom trail. ' The first 
party to reach the forks of the Thompson by this route came in August 1 858. 
They were abo represented as complaining of the route. But these reports 
came through the Victoria press, actuated by jealousy, perhaps, of a rival 
a:id outside route. The partisans of the route declared that it was as easy as 
it was direct. The trail had been cut for ten miles into the wood and then 
abandoned. Bay ley s V. I., MS., 42. 

^* The trail to Spuzzum was opened by 50 volunteers. In September it 
was opened to the ferry. The freight by the first train was 46^ cents a pound 
from Yale to the Forks. Victoria Gazette, Sept. 1, 15, 1858. Many could ill 
afford tliis rate, and as the water fell they ventured to tow canoes through 
the canons at the risk of life and property. Seven men were drowned while 
Pouglas was at Yale in October. B. C. Papers, ii. 6; Waddirifjtons Fraser 
Fumr, 8. 



ROUTES TO THE MINES. 447 

the winter, a dimculty averted by the opening in 
November of the Harrison-Lilloet road. 

Another route to the upper country in 1858 was 
the ^McLoughhn trial by WT.y of Priest Kapids, fol- 
lowed by the regular Oregon packers. It was more 
direct than the Palmer branch, and ascended the 
Similkameen to Ped Earth Fork, whence it struck 
across a divide to Nicola Valley, reaching the Thomp- 
son at Nicaomeen, thirteen miles above its niouth.^^ 
The oldest travelled route on the plateau beyond this 
Avas the brigade trail of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
which connected at the Forks with the Hope-Spuzzum 
trail, and passed northward by way of the Fountain. 
It had been brought into use on the abandonment in 
1847 of the Columbia River route.^'' The land and 
water route opened betw^een Harrison Piver and Lil- 
loet by October 1858, became for a considerable time 
the main line for traffic with the upper country. By 
October 1860, a new and easier road, practicable dur- 
ing winter, w^as opened between Yale and Lytton, and 
it needed only the Cariboo excitement to set in motion 
the transformation of the trail into a wagon-road, the 
cutting and blasting for which began at Yale in 1862. 
The road was gradually extended under different con- 
tracts, ar.d by 1864 the era of freight-w^agons had set 



Above the little canon at Yale, mining was prose- 
cuted to a considerable extent even in 1858, notwith- 
standing the difficulty of transporting supplies; and 
Boston Par and Lytton rose to be geographical points 
of note. Boston Bar lay at the mouth of the An- 

19 5. C. Papers, i. 79-83. 

^^ William Hatchings of California travellc.l Ly it in July 1S5S, on hia way 
from Hope to the Foxintaiu. In May the trapper Wol.'e led .3G Orcgonians to 
the same place by the old Colville brigade trail. Vicloria Gazette, July 2^, 
1858. 

'^'Replacing the pack-trains, which had charged $1 to Cl-SOaiwund freight 
to Cariboo. The oi)erations on the trail had been umler the direction of 
Sjrgeant McCaun; these were imdcr Captain Grant, R. E. FinUn/nona V. /., 
MS., 61; Victona GazcUe, May 5, July 7, Sept. 10, 18C8; B. C. Directo.ij, 
1SG7. 203. 



448 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

Jerson River, midway between Yale and Lytton, and 
was the representative camp of the unnavigable por- 
tion of the canon. It was often referred to by its 
Indian name of Anayome. The buildings were pleas- 
antly situated on a low flat, and a ferry connected with 
the rich island bar on the opposite side. Between 
Xale and Spuzzum, know^n also as Rancheria, were 
named Wellington, Sailor, Pike, Madison, Steamboat. 
Humbug, Surprise, Washington, and Kelly bars; and 
between Spuzzum and Boston Bar, the ferry, Chetman 
or Chapman, Steamboat, Cross, and Nicaragua bars.^^ 
At all of these places mining was at first almost en- 
tirely confined to the river-bed, and wdthin six inches 
of the surface, so that the deposit did not last long. 
Similar strata existed beneath, but they were not so 
readily found, nor so accessible on account of the 
water, combined with much barren ground. Most 
claims yielded early in 1858 twelve dollars to the 
man, but Sailor diggings were reported in June as 
the richest, and averaging one ounce, though four 
ounces w^ere not uncommon."^ Before the completion 
of the mule-trail above Yale, mining was necessarily 
interrupted by intervening journeys for supplies, and 
in August the Indian campaign brought it to a stand- 
still for a short time. In November 1858, the popu- 
lation of the district was three hundred, who carried 
on their mining throughout the winter, and made 
good wages, although the ground had frequently to 
be thawed by fires. ^"^ 

^^ Pierre Maquais of Hill Bar had also a store five miles above Yale, and 
York kept a boarding-house a short distance from the town in May IS^iS. 
Douglas' Private Papers, MS. , ser. i. 90-1 . At the rancheria -were 6 or 8 wig- 
wams with 200 Indians. The ferry was one mile and Cross Bar 9 miles above 
it, in the big canon. Vic(.07-ia Gazette, INIay 5, 1859. 

2^ Douglas heard in June 1858 of 3 men here who had saved nearly 9 ounces 
a day to the hand; 2 others had made 4 ounces a day each with a rocker. 
Pork, flour, and coflee sold at $1 a pound. Douijlas' Pr irate Papers, MS., ser. 
i. 92-5; B. C. Papers, i. 1.3. McCaw got 50 ounces fi-om Indians, with nug- 
gets of $.3 to $4 in weight. Overland from Minnesota to Fraser, 40. At Nic- 
aragua JBar 5 men showed $118 as a day's yield. Victoria Gazette, May 5, 
1859. 

2* $25 a day. Victoria Gazette, May 5, 7, 1859. In March 1859, 3 men took 
out $10,000. Id. Two men came from Boston Bar in April with 600 ounces 
of (lUoi;, washed out during the winter. B. C. Papers, ili. 0. 



ox THE THOMPSON. 449 

The prevalent impression that the country at and 
beyond the confluence of the Thompson was rich and 
contained coarser gold, had attracted many to Lytton 
A party of miners returning from the Forks reached 
Victoria in April 1858, and reported one hundred 
and fifty men at work there, wdiile as many more 
were on the way to the place. "^ The mule-trail from 
Yale not being opened yet, the Forks were precari- 
ously situated from want of supplies, and several 
miners returned to Yale empty-handed in conse- 
quence, though the diggings were believed to be rich. 
The Hudson's Bay station at the Forks being the ob- 
jective point of all those who advanced beyond Boston 
Bar, and the depot for the miners who reached the 
Forks, was itself so far reduced in June and July 
1858, that the company's men were glad to avail them- 
selves of berries for food, while the miners all along the 
river above Boston Bar were reported to be actually 
starving.-^ The transportation difficulty was over- 
come in September, when the mule-trains and express 
companies poured into the camps, and mining was 
entered upon with spirit, chiefly within a circuit of 
six miles from Lytton. Before the close of the year 
some of the high branches were prospected, and found 
to yield coarse gold up to five -dollar lumps. In 
January 1859 a hundred men were digging around 
Lytton. and averamno; eio'ht dollars a dav. Favorable 
reports were freely circulated by traders and others, 
and early in 1859 the influx from the lower country 
began on a large scale. By March 24th it was re- 
ported that three hundred boats, carrying an average 
of five miners each, had passed Yale, and were try- 
ing to work over the rapids during the low water. A 
still larger number proceeded by land, so that upward 
of three thousand persons had entered the Cascade 
region before the end of the month.-'' Many of these 

*' Douglas, in Cornwallis^ N. Eldorado, 364. 
^'^Posl, in Victoria Gazette, July 14, 1858; B. C. Papers, iii. 33. 
*' Dowjlas, in B. C. Papers^, ii. 62; iii. 6; Victoria Gazette, Feb. 5, 1859. 
Hist. Beit. Col. 29 



450 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SEiTLEMENT. 

remained round Lytton, which, in October 1858, had 
already attained to fifty houses or tent-dwellings, and 
promised to advance rapidly. 

Determined to further its prospects, Douglas, in 
September 18G0, despatched a party to seek a route 
ill the direction of Van Winkle Bar and Lilloet, 
and granted twenty-five hundred dollars for opening 
the road to Bonaparte Biver by way of Hat Creek. 
His object was afterward attained in a more decisive 
manner by the construction of the wagon-road along 
the Thompson to Cache Creek, which branched to 
Cariboo, and commanded the entire area between 
Kamloop and Okanagan Lake. In September 1860, 
Douglas found two hundred wliite and five hundred 
Chinese miners in Lytton district, yielding a license 
revenue of four thousand dollars. In 1864 several 
companies were still taking out considerable sums 
from the river-bed at Kanaka Creek, twelve miles 
below Lytton, and at other points, the dirt being 
secured while accessible, and washed afterwards."^ 

We have now ascended the Fraser to the borders 
of the region referred to by Douglas, in his despatches 
at the beginning of the gold excitement in British 
Columbia, as the Couteau mining country. ^^ At 
Lytton the Fraser receives the waters of the Thomp- 
son, a large river, v/hich after draining the southe: u 
sides of some of the Cariboo parallels of the Bocky 
Mountains, traverses the northern plateau, containing 
the earliest found placers in the Fraser Biver basin. 
Here the stream of prospectors pressing inland in 
the spring cf 1858 divided; but owing to the larger 
extent of the river bars, and profitable ground on tli 
Fraser, the great majority continued up the mail: 
artery. In April 1858, both bank and river mining 
were in progress between the forks of the Thompson 
and the Fountain, and miners were reported to be 

'^ At Dog Creek some miners claimed that they coiikl take out .$250 a cfay 
each. Weekly Coloni-il, January 10, 1GC5. Don^jlas' Private Papers, IslS., 122-3. 

'^^ Couteau, a knife. la the earliest mining on. the Thonipsou crevicing was 
• done V\-i„h knives. 



FOCTER AXD OTHER BARS. 451 

maluDg' from eight to one Imndrod dollars a daj^, the 
average being from nine to ten dollars.^'' 

B}' November the number of those engaged in 
mining between this point and the Fountain had 
greatly increased.^^ IMormon Bar, Spindulen Flat, 
Cameron Bar, McGoffey Dry-diggings, Foster Bar, 
Willow Bank, and the great falls were localities in 
order between the Forks and Cayoosh, afterward 
known as Lilloet, at the junction of the Harrison 
Biver route with the Fraser. Bobinson's Bar and 
French Bar were betw^een Lilloet and Bridge Biver, 
and a few miles above that were upper Mormon Bar 
and the Fountain, the limit of extensive or profitable 
mining in 1858. Wing-damming was tried at Mormon 
Bar, and succeeded well, even after the bed had been 
worked for some time. Ditches were also introduced 
at several bars with success, particularly at McGof- 
fey Dry-diggings, wdiere the benches were reported 
very rich. Lumps were obtained here weighing from 
fifty cents to twelve dollars, and at the falls coarse 
gold was found in considerable quantity up to six- 
ounce pieces.^^ 

^"Loridon Times, cor. from San Francisco, ^May 19th, quoted in Overland 
from Minnesota to Fraser Hirer, 39. A miner who arrived at Victoria on May 
Sth from these diggings, estimated the total number of miners on the Fraser 
at 1,000. 

^' Three thousand. Doxiglas' Despatch, Nov. 9, 1S58, in B. C. Papers, ii. 29. 

'- At JSIoi-mon Bar, five and a half miles above the Thompson forks, Com- 
missioner 0. Travaillot reported in July 1858, that a single rocker obtained in 
eiglit days $830 from the bed of the river, another §800 in twelve davs, and 
a third §248 in five days. B. C. Papers, i. 19. During the winter of'l8o8-9 
two little wing-dams were constnicted, from which several parties took out 
84,000. In Way 1859 the same parties dug a ditch to wash the bank. Curioso, 
Boston Bar, INIay 5th, cor., Victoria Gazette, May 17, 1859. Spindulen flat, fif- 
teen miles above the Thompson forks, and named after an old chief, averaged 
fiom §8 to §10 a day to the man in May 1859. A small water supply was 
obtained from a little stream. Victoria Gaz-tte, May 7, 1859. Cameron Bar, 
ten miles below Foster Bar, paid well with rockers in 1858. Early in the 
spring of 1859 a company of eleven men broufrht in at great expense a ditch 
upou a flat opposite the bar, half a mile long by three hundred yards wide, 
v/here it was necessary to sluice off ten feet of surface ground before the pay 
dirt was reached. Foster Bar cor.. May 5th, Victoria Gazette, ^May 17, 1859. 
At ^IcGofiey Di-y- diggings, three miles above Cameron, and seven miles below 
Foster Bar, was a wide flat overlooking a canon, on which J»IcGofl"ey and Com- 
pany had sluices, and were washing off six feet of surface dirt to reach the pay 
stratum. This was said to be rich, and the company were reputed to be taking 
out fortunes. At the great falls the Indians, in May 1858, were said to be 



452 FRASER RIVER mXIXG AND SETTLEMENT. 

Foster Bar was one of the earliest and best known 
localities. Here Cornwallis and his party in July 

1858 washed out with rockers, in six hours, from 
three to five ounces of gold each; and the Indians 
at the same time were carrying in skin pouches from 
$100 to $500 worth of gold-dust. In May 1865 there 
were still some sixty miners at this place, working 
chiefly with rockers, and making from $3 to $8 a day, 
while a sluice company was averaging $8 to the man. 
This bar was noted for the only case of open resistance 
to the authorities that took place during the whole of 
the Fraser excitement in 1858. A man named D. 
Brown being charged with some criminal offence, 
Tour of the miners posted themselves in a log-house 
and undertook to defend their companion against 
arrest. A severe fight ensued, in which Brown was 
shot, and the party was forced to surrender.^^ 

Some distance above Foster Bar lay the Indian 
village of Cayoosh, where miners had been occupied 
long before the Harrison Biver route transformed the 
place into the trading town of Lilloet, which by May 

1859 boasted of several houses and a number of tent- 
buildings. With the opening of this route mining 
sprung up at several points along its course, for the 
loam on Lilloet Biver covered a bed of clay which 
was associated with placers; while quartz veins cropped 
out along the banks of Lilloet Lake, and extended 
through the entire ridge to the Fraser at Lytton. 
The yield on Lilloet Biver was not very alluring, how- 
ever, and varied in March 1859 from $2 to $4 with 

digging out great quantities of gold with the simplest of all implements — 
mere sticks. fV. C. Johnson's Statement, in. Douglas' Private Papers, MS., i. 99. 
Thirty miners from the great falls returned for provisions to Yale in May 
1858, and reported to Governor Douglas that they had been making from 
$10 to $30 a day in coarse gold. Dowjlas' Despatch, June 10, ISoS, in B. C. 
Papers, i. 14. At the Willow Bank, a locality near the falls, Cornwallis' 
party, in July, found in the gravel of the river-bed half a dozen nuggets 
weighing from four to six ounces. Cornwallis' JSf. El Dorado, 203-215. 

^^ Douglas' Despatch, Dec. 24, 1858, in B. C. Papers, ii. 46. A miner 
pursued hence a partner whom he accused of absconding with the joint 
savings. He found and shot the man at the mouth of the Fraser, in May 1858, 
and thereupon escaped across the boundary, but was an-ested at Whatcom. 
Cornwallis' N. Eldorado, 203-15; Victoria Gazette, May 17, 1859. 



LILLOirr AND VICmiTY. 453 

the rocker, and $5 to $8 with the sluice. These 
rates were still obtainable in 1867, when sluicing was 
carried on by several parties.^* 

Some of the most successful mining operations on 
tlie Fraser from June 1858, and throughout 1859, were 
witnessed between the great foils and the Fountain, 
including the Bridge River, which entered the Fraser 
a little above Lilloet. At Robinson Bar, near Lilloet, 
about one hundred miners were eno-asfcd in June 1858, 
making from $80 to $90 a day each during the first 
four or five days, after which the yield fell to $5 or $6.^^ 

At French Bar, close above Lilloet, the prospects 
justified the construction of two ditches, each a mile in 
length, which were worked in the beginning of 1859 
1 )y a dozen miners. Their receipts in May were from 
tight dollars to twelve dollars, while rockers made 
about half of this amount to the man. Here a ferry 
(^'ossed the Fraser to Fort Behrens, and connected 
with a trail to the Fountain.^^ Bridge River, so named 
from the bridges constructed by Indians as well as 
white men, became popular in 1858 from the discovery 
I )f some coarse gold, not exceeding one and a half ounces 
in size; but it was soon found that the chief yield was 
scale gold, which required great care and much quick- 
silver. The river was prospected to the Cascade Moun- 
tains, wing-dammed, Humed, and mined in the bed as 
well as in the bank ; and although the diggings were 
shallow, the prospect, as reported by BishojD Hill and 
others, was so encouraging that the faith in their pro- 
ductiveness became abiding. Nugent estimated that 
it possessed suitable placers for fifteen hundred miners. 
A little town was founded here by Fraser and Davis, 

"JV. Westminster Examine?; July 6, 18G7; Dmglas' Private Papers, MS., 
i. 98-9; B. C. Papers, ii. CT. 

^'' Hutcliings, in Victoria Gazette, July 29, 1858. C'ornwallis records that 
when he reacheil this point in July 1S5S, another party had aheady diverged 
many miles in the direction of the coast mountains toward the south-west, 
where it was reported they had found good diggings. X. El Dorado, 203-15. 
Reference was here made i)robably to Cayoosh River and Anderson Lake. 
At Horse Beef Bar, three miles below French Bar, miners were dii;giug out 
in February 1859 from S2 to S6 a day. 

^* Lieutenant Palmer, in B. C. Papers, iii. 47. 



454 FRASER RIVER ISIINmG AND SETTLEilENT. 

which m May 1859 contamed seven business houses 
and several tents.^' 

Impressed with the common behef that richer placers 
might be found farther up the river, the government 
fitted out a prospecting expedition under Andrew J. 
Jamieson, which started from Lilloet August 7th, and 
ascended the south fork of Bridge E-iver for seventy 
miles above its junction with the main stream. Here 
was found a slate much resembling that of "Williams 
Creek in Cariboo, with stream placers. 

The pay dirt was from three to five feet deep, and 
resembled the deposits of so many other places already 
described in not occurring on the bed-rock. Quartz 
veins and indications of silver were found everywhere, 
and on Gun Creek, a tributary of Bridge River, fifty 
miles by the trail from Lilloet, fine gold placers were 
discovered, yielding from six to fifteen dollars a day. 
One feature of the entire region was the abundance 
of black sand in the bed of the river. A map of the 
country explored was made, and exhibited at \ictoria."^ 

The Chinese formed a large portion of the influx 
to the new field, and soon became the chief holders 
of claims, carrying on quite extensive dam operations. 
One of their wing-dam claims yielded in 1866 $55,000 
to a party of twelve. Ten years later the Indians 
were in almost exclusive possession, and still securing 
fair return s.^'^ 

The Fountain, or Fountains, a few miles above 
Bridge Kiver, at the mouth of Fountain Creek, on 
the left bank of the Fraser, was so named by the 

^" It stood a few huntlred feet from the mouth of the river, where this 
firm had replaced the Indian bridge by a 43-foot toll-bridge, costing SI, 450. 
Xtujent's Beport, in V. S. Ex. Boc, 111, Soth Comj., 2d Sens.; Victoria Gazette, 
]May 28, 1859; B. C. Paiiers, iii. 35. 

»« Victoria Colonist, Oct. 17 and Oct. 24, 1865. 

^' Broivns Essay, 35. The Chinese had costly flnming works thirteen miles 
above Lilloet, on Bridge River, in Nov. 1805. Victoria Colonist, Nov. 28, 
18o5. ' Nodules of pi re copper ' (copper pyrites) were found in the bed of the 
stream. Iiarvliiif/s' C'oii/ederation, 117; JV. Westminster Cobunhlan: Victoria 
Colonist, April 7, 1866. A family of Indians took out in March 1876 §1,500 
tan miles below Lilloet. Min. Mines Eevt., 1876, 423. One of the largest 
nuggets found in the Fraser country, §33 in weight, was obtained on this 
river in January 1859. Victoria Gazette, Feb. 8, 1859. 



THE FOUNTAIN. 455 

rroncli Canadians on account of some natural fea- 
tures of the vicinity. It was the ultimate camp of 
the mining emigration of 1858, and had in 1850 
become a villao'e of half a dozen lof^-huts and two cr 
three large stores scattered over the lower of two 
vast terraces that swept around the base of the moun- 
tain behind/*^ Its mining consisted in 1858 of dry- 
diggings, thirty yards from the bed of the river, 
wliich yielded remarkably well/^ The auriferous de- 
posit came evidently from the hills, for a party of 
eight persons averaged two ounces a day to the hand 
with rockers, thirty feet above the highest water level 
in the river, and finding the ground rich from the 
level of the stream to an altitude of eight or nine 
hundred feet, they threw up a ditch seven miles in 
length, which was completed before the coming of 
frost in the autumn of 1858. In the first five days' 
washing, before they were interrupted by the frost, 
the company took out of the sluices one thousand one 
hundred and ninety-eight dollars.'*" 

In 1876 the placers were still yielding a little gold, 
and the sixty Chinese then engaged on the river banks 
were making about two dollars and a half a day. One 
of them had just constructed a ten-mile ditch from 
the Fountain Creek, one third flumed, at a cost cf 
fourteen thousand dollars, and was delivering five 
hundred inches of water along the left bank of the 
Fraser.^^ Above the Fountain on the Fraser were 
Day Bar, Haskell Bar, Big Bar, and Island Bar in the 
Canoe country, and British Bar and Ferguson Ear, ex- 

*0B<' /'>;,', in B. C. Papers, iii. 17-24; Jliijne, in Id., 35, 

"Douglas mentions in his despatch of July 1, 18.18, that five different 
rockers ^vo^•e each avei-aging at this place §47 a day. B. C. J^aper.'^, i. 19. 

^- Walter Moberly, who visited this ground in the winter of 1858-9, was 
of the opinion that the river gold, at tlio Fountain in ])articular, was rusty, 
and came primarily from the hills and mountains, tlien from tlie terraces and 
bluffs in slidf's, and did not travel far. Mohcrlj'.-i Jouriie;/, in Victona Gazette, 
Feb. 17, 1859. Opposite the Fountain, on the right bank of the Fraser,^ was 
the npper Mormon Bar, where rockers in May 1859 were saving from §4 to 
§12 to tlie man, an«l sluices, .$16 to .$25. B. C. Papcru, iii. 48-75. 

*'^ The season for hyilraulic mining lasted from March to November. Mm. 
Mines Ih'pt., 1876, 422. 



456 FRASER RIVER MLN"rN"G AND SETTLEMENT. 

tending for over one hundred and fifty miles to the 
mouth of Quesnel Kiver and into the Canoe country, 
and forming the stepping-stones to Cariboo. The 
Canoe country so designated from Canoe Creek, in 
51° 30', is described as beginning fifty miles above the 
Fountain, and extending indefinitely to the north, over 
the undulating plateau, through which the Fraser cuts 
a deep channel." 

In 1858 this region was scarcely touched except by 
prospectors. In May and June 1858, Aaron Post, a 
miner from El Dorado County, California, penetrated 
alone to near Chilkoten River, one hundred and sixty 
miles above the mouth of the Thompson, prospecting 
on every bar, and finding plenty of gold. His pro- 
visions giving out he had recourse to berries, and 
occasionally to horse-flesh, obtained from the Indians, 
though he reported them as generally hostile.^^ Sev- 
eral prospectors followed in the footsteps of Post, and 
although none were able to remain for want of provi- 
sions, yet all brought gold and good reports. The 
opening of the southern roads brought to this region 
a fresh influx of permanent diggers, who made from 
five to sixteen dollars with rockers on the various bars, 
with occasional rich discoveries. It was not rare to 
find places above high water which yielded better 
than those below it, but the bars remained the chief 
resort during 1859 and 1860. At Island Bar, so 
named from the island formed here at high water, 
were several parties who in December 1858 had each 
from eight hundred to three thousand dollars' worth 
of dust, yet this autumn had proved a hard time, for 
want of supplies, and numbers had been compelled to 
depart.*® 

** The origin of the name Canoe Creek is thus accounted for by A. C. 
Anderson. In 1807 Simon Fraser of the Northwest Company, after descend- 
ing the Fi'ascr to this place, here cached his canoe and travelled on foot to 
the upper Teet village, on tlae site of Fort Yale. His Canadian voyageurs 
in referring to the cache called the village there Le Canot, and the stream La 
Bivicre die Canot. Victoria Gazette, Feb. 1, 1859. 

*^ Post's Statement, in Victoria Gazette, July 14, 1858. 

^•^At Day Bar, two miles above the Fountain, worked by Captain Day 
and four others in the winter of 1858-9, the pay averaged fx'om $8 to $10 to 



QUESXEL RIVER 457 

The bars above Alexandria, as far as the mouth of 
tlie Qucsncl, and also those of Quesnel River, were 
first occupied in the spring of 1859 by the advancing 
]>ro8pectors, who wandered restlessly from bar to bar, 
lookino- further all the M'hile for coarser gfold and more 
of it. As early as May 1859, rumors began to reach 
Bridge River of rich discoveries in this direction; 
vague as they were, they travelled fast, and attracted 
enough attention to induce many persons who were 
arrivino- a.t Brido^e River en route for the lower 
Fraser to hesitate and turn back/^ 

Late in the season of 1859 definite reports came 
that the search for gold had proved successful on the 
Quesnel; and in 1860, by the time the pioneers of 
the column reached Antler Creek, six hundred white 
miners were said to be engaged on this river, making 
from ten to twenty-five dollars per day, and occasion- 
ally turning up nuggets weighing from six to eight 
ounces. Simultaneously with these developments, sev- 
eral bars above Alexandria were brought into promi- 
nence, and mining advanced so rapidly that this very 
year a gold commissioner was appointed, who stationed 
himself at AYilliams Lake. 

At British Bar, about fifty miles above Alexandria, 
the yield was so promising as to induce six Cornish- 
men, in November 1860, to open a ditch five miles in 
length. At Ferguson Bar, three miles higher, sixty 
dollars to the man were made for some time, and the 
sand overlying the pay streak was found sufficiently 
rich to justify the construction of a four-mile ditch, 
at a cost of $12,000. This region continued for years 

the man, and was better above liigh-water mark than below; the largest 
piece of goM taken out weighing eight dollars. Victoria Gazette, Feb. 17, 
1859. Lieutenant Palmer states that in May 1859 rockers here were aver- 
aging from .S8 to §12. B. C. Papers, iii. 47. Haskell Bar, eighteen miles 
above the Fountain, yielded from $G to .?12 with rockers, and .slG to $20 at 
sluicing; and Big Bar yielded at the same time from $5 to .^ti with rockers. /(/. 
*' Victoria Gazette, May 28, 1859. 'Curioso,' my authority in this instance, 
weighs in his own mind the points in favor of going to these new diggings, 
being satisfied apparently that 'some few claims ' might be rich; but he ile- 
scribes the route as mucli more difficult and dahgerous than any so far experi- 
enced, while the country wn.s 6o far removed from the base of supplies as to 
reuaer tlia voature extremely hazardous. 



458 PHASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

to give empio^aiieiit to miners, and occasional rich 
strikes served to keep up the interest of prospectors/* 

Thompson River, the principal tributary of the 
Fraser, and the first to disclose its auriferous ground 
after the announcement of the discoveries on the 
Columbia, had a comparatively insignificant mining- 
record after 1858. Early in the Fraser excitement 
the small nuggets at Nicoutameen, ten miles from the 
mouth, attracted much attention; but the supply ap- 
j)ears to have been soon exhausted. 

The whole course of the stream lay in a gold-bear- 
ing formation, but the yield never equalled that of the 
Fraser, nor was the mining population ever extensive, 
and the towns of Cache Creek, Kamloop, and Sey- 
mour grew up rather as transportation depots than as 
mining villages.*'' In 1858, Wanquille River, on the 
north shore of Kamloop Lake, was prospected for 
some forty miles, and found to promise from five to 
six dollars to the man with sluices. Mining here 
attained a greater degree of permanency than else-. 
where along the Thompson, and cradling and hill- 
digging were for several more years carried on by 
whites, Chinese, or Indians. The discovery of coarse 
gold in pieces up to three quarters of an ounce in 
weight, and of a layer of pay dirt three or four feet 
in thickness, above the level of the river-bed, caused 
an increased activity in 1861, with a larger yield."^ 
Several other parts of the Thompson, though less per- 

*^ Blackwater tributary, 45 miles from Quesnel, created a brief excitement 
in 1870. Victoria Colonist, July 20, 1870; £. C. Papers, iv. 41; Marfies V. I., 
243^. 

*^ Victoria Gazette, Jan. 25, 1859; Overland fro^n Minnesot'i, 39. 

^"The Chinese were averaging $7.15 each in June 18G1. Broicns E.-isay, 
34. In 1807 forty men were at work here, many of whom settled dov.n and 
cultivated gardens. Coarse gold was the chief attraction, but preparations 
were made to work the hill-diggings. N. Westminster Exarniner, July 10, 
Aug. 3, 1867. Later still the mining population consisted of about 50 China- 
men, who were reported as taking out half an ounce to the man near the 
mouth of the river. Damson on Mines 40. In 1876 there were 20 Chinese 
miners with 6 claims, yielding $7,000 for the season. In 1877 only a dozen 
remained, earning §3,500 for the season. Min. Mines Hept., 187G, 1877; B. C. 
Papers, iv. 55. 



THE UPPER COUNTRY. 



459 



manent, yielded good returns. At one place five men 
were in 1859 making nearly three hundred dollars 
a day with the sluice, while others obtained ten to 
twelve dollars with rockers. In September 18G0, 
two hundred Chinese were digging near the mouth 
of the river, and in the autumn of 18G1, one hundred 
and fifty miners were reported at work not far from 
Wanquille River, making sixteen dollars a day.^^ 




The Upper Gold Districts. 

The deposits on the north branch of the Thompson 
came first into notice in 1861, when a tributary from 
the east, twenty miles above its mouth, was mined to a 
small extent and 3^ieldcd eight to ten dollars a day. At 
the same time the Indians found coarse gold above the 
junction of the Clearwater, and on the Barriere Riv- 
er a community of French Canadians was making as 

^^ Douglas' Private Papers, US., i. 122-.3; liawUngs' Confederation, 116; 
D. C. Papers, iii. 50. Seven miners on Lake Kamloop were in 18G4 earn- 
ing $1G a clay. Macfit's V. /., 2-43. 



460 TEASER RIVER MIXIXG AND SETTLE:^IEXT. 

mucli as fifty dollars a day.^^ In that creek rich quartz 
and alluvial diggings were reported in the summer of 
18G9,and regarded as a rediscovery of the spot where 
a Swiss miner ten years before claimed to have found 
some ledges.^^ Besides these localities, Moberly 
Creek, Adams River, Shushwap River, and Cherry 
Creek received considerable attention during the Big 
Bend and upper Columbia excitements, between 
1864 and 1867. In 1864 Factor McKay brought the 
news to Victoria, that all along the Shushwap and its 
tributaries four to five dollars a day could be made with 
the rocker. This pay was also obtained on the Cherry 
Creek tributary, better known for its silver ledges. 
In 1869 a quartz-miner from Nevada opened the 
Cherry Creek silver-mine, without making any very 
substantial developments; and in 1876 the company 
of I. Christian was working an eight-foot vein which 
yielded one thousand five hundred dollars in a month 
and a half, while at the same time Bissett discovered 
a ledge of gold and silver ore, five feet in thickness, on 
the north branch of the Cherry. The following year 
new placers of coarse gold were found on a high 
bench further up the creek, yielding twenty-five cents 
to the pan, so that between quartz and placer de- 
posits, Cherry Creek continued to stand high among 
mining localities.^* 

Moberly Creek, on the upper Thompson, was 
brouo^ht into notice at the commencement of the Bio; 
Bend excitement, by W. Moberly and IMountaineer 
Perry, who examined it in 1865, and gave a good 
report. On Adams Lake, and Adams Creek, ex- 
tending into Shushwap Lake, there was found in July 

^^ Factor McKay of Kamloop reported in 1864, that seven or eight miles 
from there some Canadians were making $40 a day. Victoria Weekli/ Colonid, 
March 29, 1864; Eawlings' Confederation, 115-16; Map, in B. G. Papers, iv. 
54. 

^* Tlie Swiss died, says the record, without making them known. Victoria 
Weekhj Colonist, July 31, 1869. 

s*The Chinese were making from $4 to $10 in 1876. Victoria Daily Colo- 
nist, Nov. 16, 1876; May 18, 1877. Victoria Weekli/ Colonist, March 29, 1864; 
July 24, 1869. 



CHARACTER OF DEROSIT!?. 461 

1866 a bed of gravel eight feet in thickness, yielding 
from three and a half to four dollars a day/"" The 
Thompson River bars continued on the whole to yield 
steadily throughout the decade of 1860-70, and Talie- 
sen, Evans, and others estimated the annual product 
at from twenty thousand to thirty thousand dollars. ^° 

Throughout the Eraser and Thompson placer dis- 
tricts the operations upon the bars led into the banks ; 
and these on the Eraser and its tributaries consisted 
of benches rising in successive levels behind each 
other to great altitudes. At first, all the remunera- 
tive gravel-beds a little above the level of the river 
were called dry-diggings, a classification which im- 
plied that the earth had either to be carried to the 
river to be washed, or that water had to be carried to 
the ground in ditches. This class of diggings did not 
receive much attention until the deposits accessible 
1 )y the natural sluice-ways of the country were nearly 
exhausted ; yet the line of demarcation between bench, 
bank, and river-flat dig^oino-s, where sluicino^ was car- 
ried on, was scarcely perceptible, as the river occa- 
sionally rose above them all. The term 'dry-diggings' 
came to be applied after a while more particularly to 
the higher ground, as equivalent to bench-diggings, 
which were never touched by the flood- waters, and, in 
short, to the terraces of the Eraser. The terrace de- 
posits of the northern plateau covered many thousand 
square miles of territory, following not only the river 
valleys, but extending far back over the plains, and 
flanking the mountain ranges of the interior; and 
they consisted of the more or less rich gravel and 
sand so eagerly sought for by the river, placer, and hy- 

^^ Tliis was underlaid by a solid blue cement, said to resemble deposits on 
Williams Creek. From ten feet down the cement contained plenty of quartz, 
washed gravel bowlders, sulphurets of iron, and black sand, with every indi- 
cation of good placer ground. Fifteen miles below this, seven Frenchmen 
were engaged at sluicing in the summer of ISGC. ' B. Z>.,' iu Victoria Weekly 
Colonkt, Sept. 18, 18G0. 

^Overland Monthbi, March 1S70, 2G2; Yale Examiner; Victoria Weekly 
Colonist, April 24, ISOi). 



462 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

draulic miners. It was not long before the intelligent 
miner became a^Yare that the river diggings must 
soon yield to these extensive terrace and lake-shore 
deposits, for the bar formations were different from 
those of California streams; they were recent, made 
since the formation of the bars, w^hile the bed-rock 
contained nothing of value. Bright prophecies were 
indulged in touching the yield of the higher benches; 
but the change Avas, on the whole, not to the taste of 
the diggers, and terrace operations form so small a 
portion of mining on the middle and lower Fraser, 
that in omitting the narration concerning them the 
incompleteness of the record is scarcely observed. Yet 
there is in reality no subject more vital to the mining 
history of these districts. 

The gold of the river bars consisted of fine flat 
scales, conmiinuted by long-continued hammering 
betw^een bowlders during its transport from the origi- 
nal sources. All the gold found below Yale was so 
fine that even w4th the use of blankets in the rockers 
there was a loss of about half, and with the use of 
amalgamated copper plates and quicksilver there was 
still a considerable loss.^^ The abundance of this 
fine gold in the river-beds of the great Columbia and 
Fraser was not unjustly regarded by the Californians, 
when the discovery was first announced to them in 
1858, as evidence of untold wealth in these river 
valleys. 

Ninety per cent of the gold extracted during the 
first year of mining in the Fraser basin was fine gold, 
which had been distributed by river, lake, and ice 
agencies, and finally concentrated at different points. 
Moberly's observations at the Fountain traced tlic 
deposits from the drj^-diggings into the higher ter- 
races, and a number of transient geologists, travellers, 
engineers, and scientific explorers have followed simi- 
lar investigations, the principal of them being attache's 
of the army and navy, stationed for a time at the 

^' Waddlngtons Fraser ^Ilnea, 41. 



V.IEIATIOXS ACCORDING TO LOCALITY. 463 

colony ;^^ but the results were detached and incom- 
plete, and before the beginning of the geological 
survey no systematic attention was given to the sub- 
ject. The mining operations simply proved the fal- 
lacy of the Californian idea that the river itself had 
carried the gold from some extensive placer basin a 
long distance above, and the terrace or lake detritus 
completely baffled the pursuit of its sources. 

While the fine gold could be found along the Eraser 
from its sources to the sea, the coarse gold, indicating 
the origin of the particular fine gold on the middle 
and western plateau, coincided in its distribution with 
the slaty rocks of the Anderson River and Boston 
Bar series, recurring in spots of undefined area along 
the principal streams.'^ Beyond the region of the 
ancient plateau, lake, or lakes, described by Begbie 
and Selwyn, far up in the slaty mountains of Cariboo, 
coarse gold was finally found in quantity within the 
reach of practicable mining operations— in the beds 
of the ancient streams, meandering beneath the 
Ixnvlder clays and the ice-marked gravels of the 
modern river-channels. It has been asserted that 
the auriferous sections of California and of the Fraser 
do not bear an}^ resemblance to each other; but on 
Lilloet Lake the eye readily detects many of the 
characteristics of the California gold-regions.^^ In fol- 

** Doctors Forbes, Brown, and Rattray, Lieutenant Majoie of the navy, 
and Lieutenant Palmer of the army, made official reports. De Groot, Bsg- 
bie, Harnett, Sproat, and in fact nearly all the writers on British Columbia, 
touched paragraphically on the subject. 

'■''■' Baw.son on Mines, 39. Scale aud (lour gold were found along the whole 
course of the Fraser without regard to the formations over which the river 
passed. Coarse gold was found besides at the localities of Nicoutameen, Great 
Falls, Bridge River, etc., already mentioned, also at Sitka Flat, near Lytton, 
and from that point down to Boston Bar. /(/. , 1(5. Begbie and Selwyn in their 
reports both noted the occurrence of slates along this portion of Fraser River. 

•"" Curioso, ' an intelligent and experienced Californian, who witnessed and 
described in a series of letters the mining in progress between Yale aud the 
Fountain in 1858-9, stated, in summing up, tliat the fine Hat scales found in 
the river were ' precisely similar to those found in nearly every part of the earth 
washed hundreds of feet altove the present bed of the river,' in from one to 
fifty colors to the pan. ' This, ' says the correspondent, ' sustains the theory 
that the bars are the results of heavy landslides, the lighter soil of which is 
taken almost entirely away by the current.' The formations at Nicaragua 
Bar proved this to be a fact. The bars previously worked paid a second time 



464 ERASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

lowing the Lilloet Kiver to Harrison Lake, the Cali- 
fornian is at home. Quartz, so scarce on the Eraser, 
here abounds; and the hills are of that reddish gravel 
with a blue clay from which so much gold has been 
extracted in California. Bridge River, which yielded 
so many nuggets, traversed the same formation. 

Dry-diggings first received particular attention 
between Hope and Yale about the middle of October 
1858, when it was observed that they extended along 
both sides of the Fraser to the foot of the mountains. ^^ 
Among those that were successfully worked in 1858 
and 1859, named in ascending order, were Emory Bar 
and Hunter Bar diggings, seven miles below Yale; 
Bond dry-diggings, five to seven miles below Yale; the 
Prince Albert diggings, four miles below Yale; the 
benches at Hill Bar; the George dry-diggings, three 
miles above Yale; the benches at Nicaragua Bar in 
the great canon, a little below Boston Bar; McGof- 
fey dry-diggings, seven miles below Foster Bar; the 
benches at Cameron Bar; Hovey bench-diggings on 
the left hand of the Fraser, eight miles below the 
confluence of Bridge River; and those at the Fountain 
already described. Bond, the George, Hovey, and 
the Fountain dry-diggings were worked in the autumn 
of 1858; the rest in 1859. At Lytton, and at many 
other places not mentioned, bench-diggings were tried 
in later years at times with rockers, but as a rule the 
benches were found to be unprofitable without the use 
of water delivered in ditches, a want which could not 
always be supplied in a country where the rainfall 
itself was rather light. 

for working. The operations of tlie miners were almost entirely superficial, in 
being confined to the bars and immediate edges of the banks. Victoria Gazette, 
June 16, 1859. A correspondent of the London Times in 1863 also described 
fully, and dwelt largely upon, the fine gold contained in the terraces extending 
along the whole course of the Fraser from Hope to Alexandria. Lundin 
Brown described the gold of the Fraser ' as remarkably fine, ' incapable of 
being saved without quicksilver, and as coming from the terraces. Browns 
Essay, 28. It was associated with black sand not unlike that of the Australian 
diggings. McDonald's B. C, 91-2. Specimens of the black sand of the 
Fraser were described liy Dr James Blake. Proceedings Cal. Acad. Sciences. 
fii Waddingtons Fraser Mines, 43-7. 



COARSE AND FINE GOLD 465 

Coarse gold was much more frequently met with in 
the terraces than in the river-beds; and the yield by 
sluicing ranged from four to twenty dollars a day to 
the man. At Prince Albert diggings the extensive 
terrace or table-land, which rose sixty feet above the 
highest water level of the Fraser, was pronounced 
highly auriferous, and extensive enough to give em- 
ployment to four thousand miners, allowing each 
twenty-five feet frontage and five hundred feet depth. 
Shafts were sunk in October 1858, and as there was no 
water on the ground, several companies organized to 
bring in ditches. McGoffey diggings were among the 
richest in coarse gold, the pieces weighing from fifty 
cents to twelve dollars. ^'^ 

Mr Justice Begbie was one of the first to compre- 
hend the nature of the terrace detritus as observed 
dui'ing his journey to Lilloetin April 1859. To him 
the terraces recalled the Grampian formation in Scot- 
land, and he traced in them the shores of a former lake 
covering most of the country brought into notoriety 
by the Fraser mines, and extending from Boston Bar 
to some miles above the Fountain, a distance of eighty 
or ninety miles. The fine gold phenomena of the river 

®- B. C. Papers, ii. 27. Bond-diggings, discovered by T. Bond, early in 
1S5S, and located on the higher portion of Hunter Bar, yielded coarse gold, 
some pieces weighing six dollars. Victoria Gazette, June 25, 1858. At Hill 
and Emory bar, the bar-diggings were abandoned after 1858, and in March 
1859 the miners began to construct ditches for sluicing the benches or table- 
lands. Doiajlas' Despatch, March 10, 1859, in B. C. Papers, ii. 67. The 
George dry-diggings yielded eight dollars a day with the rocker, and twenty 
dollars at sluicing. jDoriijlaa' Private Papers, MS., 1st ser., 105-6. On the 
high terrace at Nicaragua Bar, 150 feet above the river, some miners were in 
April 1859 engaged in bringing in a ditch. Victoria Gazette, May 7, 1859. 
The gold was a dirty yellow, rather coarse, not water-worn, yielding §100 a 
day to the sluice. Jonah Yale, May 24th, cor. Victoria Gazette, May 31, 1S59. 
The bar itself was at the same time paying handsomely. At Cameron Bar 
the sluicing, partly by costly flumes, was conducted at a considerable altitude, 
and yielded four dollars a day to the hand. Victoria Gazette, June 14, 1859. 
McGoffey dry -diggings were fifty feet above the river, and contained lumps 
of gold from 50 cents to $12.50 in value. Hovey diggings were 125 feet above 
the river, and yielded, in the (all of 1858, 148 ounces of sliot gold, in three 
weeks' time, to ten men using four sluices. Dowjlas, in B. C. Papers, ii. 39. 
The rocker-diggings at the Fountain were rich to an altitude of 800 or 900 
feet. These developments established pretty conclusively that the sources of 
the fine river gold were in the tci-races; but it existed there in a less concen- 
trated form. 

Hist. Brit. Col. 30 



466 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

above and below the outlet of the ancient lake, he 
compared to the results of the working of a rocker ; 
remarking that all the gold found between Hope and 
Yale was transported 'flour gold,' not a 'scale' having 
ever been found below Yale; while at Lytton eighty- 
five per cent of the gold found was scale gold, and 
but fifteen per cent flour gold.^^ The material of 
the terraces was shown by others to be neither more 
nor less than the ordinary detritus of the surrounding 
country — loam, gravel, sand, and more or less water- 
worn bowlders. Milton and Cheadle, who were in the 
country in 1863, conceived that there were three suc- 
cessive tiers of terraces, representing, as in some other 
terraced countries, three successive epochs of elevation. 
They described them as universally impregnated with 
fine gold, and remarked upon their co-extension with 
the bunch-grass country of the plateau.^* 

The odium of the 'Fraser humbug' has been out- 
lived. It is not necessary to do more than refer to 
that title, proclaimed as it was in 1858 and 1859, like 
a political shibboleth without fairness and for a single 
object — to turn the tide of emigration. But the dis- 

^^B. C. Pafera, iii. 17-20. Begbie expressed his belief that the benches 
might pay under a sufficiently large system of mining. The terrace deposits, 
from 100 to 1,000 feet in thickness, contained in his opinion not a spadeful of 
dirt that was not auriferous. Whenever bench-diggings have been \A'orked, 
said the correspondent of the London Times, Victoria, Jan. 20, 1862, ' they have 
paid well, but they have been neglected for the placer- diggings. ' With n.i 
abundance of water, and of timber for flumes, an inviting field here opened 
itself for English capital. IluzliU's Cariboo, 138-43. 

^*^ Northicest Passage hy Latid, 389. Dr Robert Brown's scientific exami- 
nation and description was tlie first comprehensive treatment of the subject, 
and he assumed that the terraces were formed by the successive cutting away 
of the barriers of interior lakes. Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., x:;xix. 125-6. The 
prairie character of so much of the terraced interior he showed to be due to 
comparative dryness, caused either by scanty rainfall or by the porosity of 
the soil, modified by prairie fires and other local causes. Id., 127-9. This 
was also the belief of Newberry, promulgated in his Origlnof Prairies, Trans. 
Am. Scicnt'Jic Association, Buffalo, 1866; and of Foster, in his Ni^sissiiypi Val- 
ly. Hector's study of the terraces of the Columbia, in connection with the 
Palliser expedition in 1869, extended through two or three years of explora- 
tion, and were very valuable. Mining in the Upper Columbia River Basin. 
Selwyn made a comprehensive risumi of the whole subject, and added a good 
deal from his own observations made in a journey from Victoria to Yellow- 
head Pass in 1871. Canada Geol. Sui-vey Beport, 1871-2, 54-6. 



RUSHES AND REACTIONS. 467 

appointments experienced by the thousands who went 
to Fraser River, and faihng to be successful returned 
in misfortune, are worthy of a candid record in the 
history of the times, wliile a picture of the wave of 
depression into which the colony was plunged belongs 
to the history of the country itself. British Colum- 
bia was called the Land of Hopes Unfulfilled.^^ Thirty 
thousand Californians rushed north to Victoria, and 
as hastily returned. A large part of this migrating 
population being moved by incentives of trade and 
speculation, incidental to the mining discoveries, came 
i.o nearer to the mines than this port; but those who 
approched them did so at the very worst time, when 
the river bars, then the only diggings looked for, were 
covered by water. They found themselves further- 
more in a wild country, affording none of the com- 
forts and conveniences of a miner's life in California, 
the greater part of it being beyond the reach of sup- 
plies and almost untrodden. 

To the natural difficulties were added the illiberal 
restrictions of trade enforced by the governor and 
officers of the Hudson's Bay Company,^*^ who allowed 
no trading with the Mainland and interior to be car- 
ried on by the merchants of Victoria and Whatcom 
till after midsummer. The only exception to their 
own monopoly of the trade of the mines was the per- 
mission granted by Governor Douglas to scvei^al 
parties to sell fresh meat and vegetables. The con- 
sequence was, that even the departure of the miners 
from Victoria into the interior after the first rush 
had the effect of making Victoria dull. 

The foundering of the steamer Brother Jonathan 
off Crescent City, July 8, 1858, with the loss of many 
of her passengers, was a shock which gave the final 
impress to the idea that the rush had continued too 

«^ WrigJit, in Overland MonfMy, December 1SG9. 

^ Some attributerl the hanl times to the fact that tlic gold-dust was kept 
out of circulation by the company's receiving it for goods, which were only 
paid for by bills of exchange on London. Cornwallii' New El Dorado, 306; 
Waddiiiijtons Fraser Mines, 22-4; Browns Essay, 3, 4. 



468 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

long. The immigration suddenly stopped ; and more : 
in a few months the adventurers were nearly all back 
again in 'God's country,' as they called the sunnier 
regions of the south,^' full of bitter denunciations 
of the route, the country, the resources, yet knowing 
no more, after their return, of the extent and wealth 
of the mines than they knew before leaving in quest 
of them. It was argued that the deposits on the 
lower Fraser must be small, and if the head-waters 
contained greater wealth, the remoteness, Indian diffi- 
culties, want of supplies, and the short duration of 
the mining season, would forever make them inferior 
to California as a mining resort. 

After the river fell there was a reaction, for a large 
number had with commendable patience remained to 
await this event, and now that the gold began to flow, 
the departures were not only checked, but a fresh in- 
flux took place. The yield did not come up to their 
expectations, however, and in November 1858 the 
winter exodus set in, a hundred persons leaving Vic- 
toria every week.^^ Good, deputy minister of mines, 
who had access to every source of information, placed 
the total yield for 1858 at $500,000, and for 1859 at 
$1,600,000, while the known exports were $390,265, 
the respective years. To this one third may be added, 
to include what had been carried away by private 
hands. The number of miners actually employed in 

«' Victoria Gazette, Sept. 9, 1858; Overland Montlihj, May 1869, 416. Hun- 
dreds were returning to Victoria with but little gold, and were leaving the 
country, to the dismay of the store-keepers. Business was dead. Wiuldimj- 
tons Fraser Mines, 38. In July and August the San Francisco newspapers 
were filled with the folly of the northern exodus. ' The mania,' said the Bul- 
letin oi July 12th., 'exceeded all bounds of reason and prudence.' Hunger 
and despair had now overtaken them. Huncb-eds who had left good employ- 
ment were unable to return. When Nugent arrived at Victoria as consular 
agent of the United States, he found ' multitudes in a state of actual starva- 
tion,' and was obliged to send numbers of persons to California at the public 
expense. TarhelVs Victoria, MS., 6; McDonald's B. C, 121. Throughout 
the months of August and September the Victona Gazette contained frequent 
admissions of the depressed condition of affairs. Vide Aug. 10, Sept, 25, 29, 
1858. 

^^B. C. Papers, ii. 39; Leivis' Coal Discoveries, MS., 13-15. It was hardly 
just, perhaps, to compare the fields of British Columbia with California before 
ner deposits had been fairly opened. 



GOLD YIELD. 469 

1858 was assumed to be 3,000; in 1859, 4,000; and in 

1860, 4;400. The highest estimates were those given 
by McDonald, who had the benefit of the books of 
McDonald and Company, and who claimed to have 
based his calculations on the returns of the bankers, 
the express companies, and the surveyor-general. 
He placed the yields of 1858 and 1859 at $2,120,000 
and $1,375,000, and the total population in 1858 at 
17,000; in 1859, at 8,000; in 1860, at 7,000; and in 

1861, at 5,000 — one sixth being British subjects. The 
United States consular agent Nugent, on the other 
hand, thought that the entire yield from May to 
October 1858 did not exceed $500,000; while the 
number of miners employed during the first three 
months could not have been less than 2,000, and dur- 
ing the remainder of the season 10,000. Leaving the 
first three months out of the question, he figured the 
average earning of each miner at $50 for the season, 
against $350 expenses. Waddington estimated the 
yield till October at $705,000, and the investment of 
labor and capital in steamers, wharves, buildings, real 
estate, and various improvements at Victoria and 
Esquimau, with native and imported capital, at 
$1,560,000.'^' 

^^ Alfred Waddington made an attempt to show that the yield of the 
Fraser mines during the first six months was as good as that of California and 
Australia. During the same period, at the commencement of their mining 
history, California had made a showing of $'J40,000, Australia, $725,000, 
and Fraser River, §705,000; allowing for only .^00,000 as a circulation in tlie 
Fraser mines in October 1858, though he thinks this must have been nearer 
§250,000, at $50 apiece, among 5,000 miners. Pemberton, another author- 
ity, states that the total product for that year amounted to §1,494,211, and 
for the following year to $2,000,000, or a total for the first two years of at 
least $.3,000,000. The number of miners actually at work at any time during 
this period could not have exceeded 3,000 — the number of miners' licenses 
issued indicating only $2,000 — wliich makes the average annual earnings of 
each miner $500. Pemberton s B. C, 36-41; Vic. Gaz., April 19, June 9, 1859. 
The number of working miners in California in 1800 was estimated at 200,000, 
or one third of a i.opulation of 000,000; the yield being $50,000,000, or $250 
to each miner. DoUj,'la3 reported 10,000 foreign miners on the Fraser in 
August 1858, and upwards of 3,000 as actually engaged in mining. B. C. 
Papers, i. 27, 41. Douglas wrote in February 1858, tliat Thompson River 
had then produced an ascertained export of 500 ounces, and probably 500 
ounces more which remained in private hands. Cornirfdli-<' X. El Dormto, 3t)8. 
The amount of gold-dust bought by the Hudson's Bay Company at Langley, 
up to May 25, 1858, was t548g ounces. Douglas Primte Papers, MS., i. 91; 



470 FRASER RIVER MINING AND SETTLEMENT. 

Whatever figures are correct, it is certain that the 
gold shipments were small in comparison with those 
of California, and herein was found a strong argu- 
ment against the value of the mines. The process of 
depopulation and the stagnation in trade continued 
throughout 1859 and 1860. Of the thousands who 
had suddenly made Victoria a city, only about fifteen 
hundred remained. Aff'airs then reached the lowest 
ebb. There was but little business, and less in pros- 
pect. " Let us look disaster in the face," counselled 
the mentor of the local daily, as he reduced his issues 
and omitted the title of daily.™ The depression con- 
tinued for some time after; hopeful intimations came 
at the close of 1860 from the fork of the Quesnel, 
followed by a gradually increasing flow of dust, which 
established beyond a doubt the existence of rich 
placers in the country. ^^ 

The history of mining on the middle and western 
plateaux was henceforth chiefly statistical in char- 
acter.'^ Enough had been found and accomplished 

U. S. Ex. Doc. iil., 35th Conr/., 2d Sess.; McDonald's B. C, 82; Min. Mines 
HepL, 1875, 1. The Otter arrived at Victoria, May 8, 1858, with $35,000 in 
gold-dust, and $20,000 was the estimated receipts at Whatcom during the 
week. Overland from Minnesota, 40-2; Victoria Gazette, Aug. 20, 1858; Salem 
Argus, Sept. 4, 1858. 

'" Victoria Gazette. On May 28, 1859, the editor observed that the pay of 
three to five dollars a day oflered by average claims was too even and low to 
attract the gambling spirit of Californians. The government was severely 
rated for its unwise regulations concerning land, roads, and mines, which it 
was alleged had repelled Americans. 

'^ This was owing partly to the remoteness of the mines, and partly to the 
want of hopefulness and energy among a not over-prosperous community. On 
the failui-e of the Big Bend excitement the editors were only too ready to 
moralize. ' We are experiencing a season of depression and misfortune only 
equalled by the disastrous years of 1859-60. Quartz-mining was recom- 
mended as a remedy. Victoria Weekly Colonkt, Sept. 11, 1866. 

^'■^ Wells, Fargo, and Company shipped from Victoria in 1858, $337,765; in 
1859, $823,488; and in 1860, $1,298,466. Allen Francis, in U. S. Commercial 
Statistics, 1863, 194. All of that shipped in 1S58 and 1859 was Fraser River 
gold, but a large part of the shipments in 1860 came from Quesnel Forks in 
the confines of Cariboo. A. C. Anderson augments these figures to cover 
the total export, thus: for 1859, $1,211,339; 1860, $1,303,329. Andersons 
Essay, appendix, iv. Charles Good, deputy minister of mines, gives us the 
amounts actually kno\An to have been expoi'ted by the express company and 
banks in 18:)8 at .>^390,265; in 1859, at $1,211,304; and in 1860, at $1,671,410. 
To these figures he adds a third to include the estimated amount carried away 
by private hands, making the total amounts, for 1S5S, $520,353; for 1859, 
$1,615,072; and for 1860, $2,228,543. The largest yield was in 1864, $3,735,- 



EFFECT OF GOLD DISCOVERY. 471 

during the Eraser mining developments to evolve a 
government; to open a road into the interior; to lead 
the way into several rich and lasting mining regions ; 
and to suggest at once overland communication, and 
confederation with Canada. Until in the pi'ogress of 
development the new conditions foreshadowed should 
be finally brought about by the commencement of a 
railway through the Fraser pass to the Cascade 
]\Iountains, the dawning of a new era in mining and 
immigration had to abide its time. 

850, after which it declined to §1,305,749 in 1873; it rose a^ain to 82,474,- 
904 in 1875, and then fell off a second time. Min. Mines liept., 1875-1877. 
The number of persons engaged in mining during this test period — so dif- 
ferently estimated by Waddington and Nugent — was placed by flood at 
2,000 in 1858, 3,100 in 1859, and 3,900 in 18(50; while the editor of the Vic- 
toria Gazette, March 10, 1859, estimated the mining population in March 1859 
as high as 4,000, and the anticipated mining population in May following, 
5, 500. The latter authority does not distinguish between the population in 
the mines and those actually engaged in niiumg, a fact which may account 
for the discrepancy. In ISGO the population of Vancouver Island was ofS- 
cially estimated at 5,000, and the ^Mainland at 5,000. Cariboo Gold-fields, G9. 
Thus it appears that the tendency of the gold discoveries on the Mainland 
was to settle the Island rather than the Mainland even from the commence- 
ment, the population of the Island preponderating over that of the ^lainlan 1 
also in later years. Vide chapters on Railway. In 1861 the London Times' 
correspondent estimated that 3,500 miners were working in the Fraser and 
Columbia basins exclusive of Cariboo, where he allowed on general testimony 
1,500 more, or 5,000 miners in all. Muyne's B. C, 442. Good's estimate for 
that year was 4,200; from which data it may be inferred that several thou- 
sand miners were still distributed along the Fraser as high as Fort George, 
and along Bridge River, Thompson River, and others of the lower Fraser 
tributaries. Along the Fraser they were earning from §3 to §15 per day, and 
supposed to be averaging 85 a day. Times' cor., in HazUu's Cariboo, 138-43. 
In 1871 Lilloet district yielded §15,000; Yale and Lj-tton districts together, 
§110, 000, scarcely a tenth of the total yield of the province. Between §15,0G0 
anil §20,000 was annually contributed to the wealth of the province bj' the 
Indians mining on the bars of the Fraaer and Tliompson at low water in 
winter, bodies of them being seen at work cradling at favorable times during 
the coldest weather. Victoria Weekly Coloni.'it, Nov. 27, 1872. In 1875 the 
statistics collected by the deputy minister of mines showed that 50 Cliiuese, 
engaged on bar-diggings in Lilloet district, washed out §50,000, ^^•hile in 
Lytton district 20 Chinese and two white men took out only .§1,600. In the 
Yale district only four Chinese were employed, getting §800. In 1876 the 
Lilloet district, including Bridge River, had GO Chinese at work, but pro- 
duced oidy §25,000; while tlie Yale ami Hope districts had two white and 
nine Chinese miners who obtained §9,1 14. Tlie latter iu 1877 employed three 
white men and 13 Chinese, who obtained §12,000. Min, Jilines Bept., 1875-7. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

GOLD m THE CAKIBOO COUNTRY. 

Cariboo Region — Its Deposits — New Mining Era — Golden Dreams — 
Early Developments — Roads and Mountain Trails — The Great 
Prospectors — The Influx— Quesnel River Mines — Horsefly and 

QUESNEL L.-KE— KeITHLEY AND ITS ToWN—HaRVEY AND CUNNINGHAM 

Creeks — Antler Creek Riches— Grouse Creek. 

On the head-waters of Fraser River the mining 
operations previously confined to the beds of the main 
rivers spread in 1860, 1861, and 1862 over a large 
area of elevated country which was somewhat in- 
definitely designated as the Cariboo Region.^ It may 
be described in general terms as situated between 
the head-waters of the main Fraser and its principal 
tributary, the Thompson, upon the inner or western 
ridges branching from the Rocky Mountains, in latitude 
52° to 54° north, five to seven thousand feet above the 
sea.^ In the heart of the New Caledonia of the fur- 
traders, its principal river, the Quesnel, and doubtless 
a portion of the country itself, was more or less known 
to them as far up as the lakes of the Quesnel. The 

1 Douglas said in regard to the name given to the region by the miners, 
properly it should be written Cariboextf, or reindeer, the country having been 
so named from its being the favorite haunt of that species of the deer kind. 
Douglas' Despatch, Sept. 16, 1861, in ffazl/tt's Cariboo, 117. Cerf-bauf (deer- 
ox) appears to have been the original. This was corrupted in its application 
to the large species of reindeer inhabiting British America. 

2 Lieutenant H. S. Palmer described this mountainous region as consisting 
of steep downs, clothed with tolerable grass, and dotted with small pine 
plantations, contrasting on account of their bareness with the valleys and 
lower slopes in a manner so marked as to have received the title of the Bald 
Hills of Cariboo. Lond. Geog. Sac, Jour., Sept. 1804, 186. The same region 
was described by E. M. Dawson as a 'high level plateau,' averaging from 
5,000 to 5,500 feet in altitude, and entirely covered, more or less thickly, with 
drift or detrital matter concealing the greater part of the rocky substratum. 
Dawson on Mines, 6. 

( 472 ) 



GOLD-MINING GEOGRAPHY. 473 

Hudson's Bay fort of Alexandria and the old high- 
way of the traders along the Fraser were in full view 
of the Cariboo Mountains, and but forty miles distant. 
These forts and lines of communication were estab- 
lished and held by the Canadians in the peaceful 
routine of their traffic for fifty years before the gold 
discoveries; yet the region had received no general 
distinctive name. 

The appearance upon the forest plateau of the upper 
Fraser in 1859 of a new and strange order of white 
men, whom the Indians, by this time well accustomed 
to the fur-trade, may be supposed to have distin- 
guished as the diggers, introduces a new area of ex- 
ploration and occupation. The new-comers devised 
for its geographical titles, in their own peculiar way,^ 
under which the regions and the localities in question 
were at once brought prominently within the field of 
industry and of history. The Cariboo region seemed 
in the autum of 1860, when the first intimations were 
received of mining about the fork of the Quesnel, to 
be as remote and as difficult of access as the arctic 
regions. Impressed with the belief that the coarser 
gold of the country would be found higher, a hand- 
ful of miners had this year penetrated along the main 
and north branches of the Quesnel to the Quesnel and 
Cariboo lakes. Launching their rafts, they voyaged 
along the winding and extended shores, prospecting 
the tributary streams with varied adventure and suc- 
cess. The particular scenes, characters, and incidents 
of their progress must be left to the imagination of 
the reader. The pencil of the artist will in a future 
day picture the wild beauties of these lakes and valleys. 
From Cariboo Lake was visible, a short distance to the 
westward, a group of bald mountains, subsequently 
known as the Snowshoe, and Mount Agnes Bald 

^In the early gold-mining geography of British Columbia, sixty miles 
above the Thompson River country began the ' Canoe Country;' to the north 
of whicli was the ' Balloon Country; ' and beyond that again was the ' Cariboo 
Country '—terms of an indefinite character, yet generally used. HitteWs Hand' 
hook of Miniiuj, S. F., 1801, 100. 



474 



GOLD IX THE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 



Mountains. Behind these the prospectors were now 
penetrating. This was the core of the auriferous 
slate country, whence radiated the four great rivers 
of the Cariboo region, the Bear, Willow, and Cotton- 
wood rivers, and the north branch of the Quesnel, 
hitherto unexplored and unnamed, but destined to 
become famous through their respective tributaries. 







The Cariboo Country. 

Keithley, Antler, William, and Lowhee creeks — insig- 
nificant streams issuing from the same Bald Mountain 
group. A 3^ear later they were the sites of the prin- 
cipal mining-camps of the Cariboo region, known 
throughout the world; and the Snowshoe and Mount 
Agnes Bald Mountain chain, like the Sierra Nevada 
of California, the main range of the country, was 



DOUGLAS' REPORT. 475 

rendered familiar to the sight of men in places where 
solitude and the wild animal had reigned from a pri- 
meval day/ 

In August 1859, Governor Douglas was able to 
report to the colonial secretary that ''the newly ex- 
plored tract of mining country about Fort Alexandria 
and Quesnel's River" possessed "more of the general 
features of a gold country than any yet known part of 
British Columbia."^ This conclusion was simply a 
reflection of the opinions expressed by miners, who 
had reached the Quesnel Fork diggings, touching 
the character of the Cariboo Mountain region in 
its relation to the gold in the rivers; abundance 
of coarse gold having been found in the diggings, 
where it was evident it had remained in the vicinity 
of the gold-bearing rock. Here were mountains of 
gold-bearing slate, looking familiar to the Califor- 
nians; yet the diggings were not in all respects like 
those of the gold regions of California, It was ap- 
parent above all that this auriferous slate formation 
was more extensively develo[)ed than in the Cascade 
Mountain border of the plateau. There was no imme- 
diate geological connection between the fine gold of 
the Fraser mined in 1858 and the coarse gold discov- 
ered in the mountains of Cariboo;^ yet there was an 
actual and an historical connection as well as continu- 
ity. It was partly the theory concerning the origin 
of the former that led to the discovery of the latter. 
Mining camps and mining districts on the Fraser and 
its tributaries, just as in California and elsewhere, 
were inevitably abandoned at a certain stage, under 
the supposition that they were exhausted, and Fraser 

^Like the Wasatch Mountains of Utah and the Bitter Root Mountains 
of Idaho, the range was the western member of the system of the Rocky 
Mountains. In British Cohimbian latitudes this mountain range performed 
the noteworthy function of giving origin to the great bends of the Columbia 
and Fraser rivers, which, flowing to the northward behind it, bent around to 
the southward after breaking through the gold-bearing range, and then- 
struck over the plateau, in courses quite similar, to the sea. 

^Dcipntc/i, dated Aug. 23, 1S59, in B. C. Papers, iii. 50. 

* ' Fine gold will not travel far with(jut the aid of some earthy substance.' 
Harnett's Lectures. 



y 



476 GOLD IN THE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 

Kiver afforded a direct and speedy route for prospec- 
tors and their rear-guard in search of new and richer 
deposits on the plateau and within the parallels of the 
Rocky Mountains, so that the movement across the 
plateau from its western to its eastern flange was 
accomplished at a comparatively early day. In the 
course of a few years there was disclosed to the world 
a counterpart of California, equally rich, and extend- 
ing at least from the Horsefly branch of the Quesnel 
and the Clearwater tributary of the Thompson at the 
south, to the Canon Creek tributary of the Fraser in 
the north-west, over two degrees of latitude, in the 
direction of the range. But a new lesson was to be 
learned by the gold-miners. Hitherto the surface had 
been skimmed with the aid of rocker and sluice, and a 
few insignificant hydraulic enterprises had been under- 
taken on the benches; but in Cariboo, the mystery 
and art of deep placer-mining in its true technical 
sense were to be practically studied and unravelled by 
means of shafts and drifts, pumps, and hoisting ma- 
chinery. On the Fraser, as in the Columbia River 
basin, the richly concentrated gold leads of the ancient 
rivers lay in buried channels below the level of the 
modern streams, and drifting underneath the clay 
strata in search of these deposits became in Cariboo 
the main feature of mining. Exceptionally raised 
strata on the streams had in several cases revealed 
the richer leads below; but this indication was not 
always found, nor was the lead continuous. Peculiar 
difficulties were encountered in following the windings 
of the buried channels, confused and obliterated as 
they were by the later glacial action, which had, also, 
frequently modified or altered the courses of the 
modern streams. From Yale to Lilloet, from Alex- 
andria to the Quesnel River, the miners only left one 
kind of deposit to enter upon another. Thus the 
^Fraser River humbug' was, nevertheless, a continued 
mining operation; it was a repetition of the history 
of gold-mining in California; and the transition on 



EFFECT ON VICTORIA. 477 

the Fraser, in view of the remoteness and inaccessi- 
biUty of the diggings, was as speedy as it was suc- 
cessful. 

The significance of the discoveries in the Cariboo 
country did not become apparent at Victoria until 
very near the close of the year 1860. After the sea- 
son of depression and depopulation which had been 
experienced almost from the commencement of mining 
on the Fraser, everything had the appearance of 
premature death and dissolution in the colony. But 
in November 1860, with the return of the successful 
miners from the fork of the Quesnel, came bags of 
nuggets which revived the fainting hopes of the trading 
community by the sea. These were the assurances 
that the country was safe. Hesitation in regard to 
erecting permanent buildings at Victoria gave place to 
confidence,^ and the town gained its footing for a sub- 
stantial gro\\i,h. Had the government been able to 
retain the twenty thousand Americans and other for- 
eigners, whom they feared, to this time, what strides 
of development might have been made on the road to 
the Rocky Mountains in the north ! What an aspect 
might have been given to commercial developments 
on the North Pacific had the first railway to the 
Rocky Mountains been completed in British territory ! 

Fraser River and Cariboo became as famous and 
as widely known throughout the world as Sacramento 
River and Ballarat, and miners from California and 
Australia were emphatic in their declarations touch- 
ing the comparative merits of Cariboo.^ With a pop- 
ulation of fifteen hundred people, the district shipped 

KVarfie's V. T.andB. C.,13. 

® ' There were big mines in Cariboo. Tlie Cunningham claim yielded six 
ounces a day to the hand.' Lewis' Coal Bk., MS., 16. 'A comparison of 
the returns,' says Lieutenant Palmer, 'with those of the most notorious 
districts of California and Australia, encourages the belief that the auriferous 
riches of Cariljoo are the greatest hitherto discovered.' Lond. Geoij. Soc, 
Jour., 1S64, 171. The richest portions of California in its most palmy days, 
said Major Dowuie of Downieville, California, were as nothing compared 
with what he had seen since he left Victoria for Cariboo. Victoria DaUy Press, 
Oct, 15, 18G1, quoted in Hazlitt's Cariboo, 134. * Never in the history "of gold- 
mining have there been such fabulous sums amassed in so incredibly short a 
space of time. ' 



478 GOLD IN THE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 

to Victoria before the end of the season of 1861 two 
millions of dollars. Though the opportunity which 
had promised to place the Fuca ports on an equal 
footing with the harbor of San Francisco was lost, the 
developments now made showed what might follow at 
a later day, when the Canadian Pacific railway should 
place within the great Fraser basin a large popula- 
tion; and the reports of its great mineral resources 
were not only apparently but really and undoubtedly 
justified. 

The first effect of these discoveries w^as to produce 
another movement of population from California and 
Oregon into the basin of the Fraser. The abundant 
yield of gold this time created a 'stampede' for the 
new mines, which held out with every element of 
genuineness, based as it was upon known develop- 
ments rather than on a fanciful or imperfect and 
illogical deduction from mining experiences in Cali- 
fornia; and although comparatively insignificant in 
numbers beside that of 1858, the influx carried a pur- 
pose which left its mark upon the country. From 
1861 to 1865, inclusive, the immigration continued,^ 
and the losses to the country in consequence of the 
abandonment of the lower Fraser after a temporary 
occupation were recovered in all but population. 

During the first summer following the Fraser ex- 
citement, while mining upon the river bars was still 
at its height, small detachments of prospectors from 
the Canoe Country and the Balloon Country, above 
Fort Alexandria, found their way a distance of ninety 
miles up Quesnel River, and worked successfully upon 
its bars.^^ 

Numerous letters were received at Yale exhausting 
every power of persuasion to induce miners to join 
their confreres on the Quesnel, especially at Quesnel 

^ 'A far greater stampede that that of the Fraser excitement.' Deans' 
Settlement V. I., MS., G. ' The best years of Cariboo were in 1SG3, 1864, and 
1865. After that was a gradual decline.' Allan's Cariboo, MS., 11. 

1" Dou'jkui' Desjpatch, Aug. 23, 1859, in B. C. Papers, iii. 50. 



THE RUSH OF 18G1. 479 

Fork, and at some localities on the southern tributary 
called Horsefly River. During the same season of 
1859 the north fork of the Quesnel was ascended to 
the little and great Cariboo lakes; but no striking de- 
velopments appear to have been made in that quarter 
until the following summer and fall. While a number 
of miners, led by Rose and McDonald, proceeded 
to the head-waters of the Bear River, and there de- 
veloped rich ground, others continued up the north 
fork of the Quesnel to Cunningham Creek, to make 
almost equally great discoveries; but the excitement 
for the season was not fully started till the finding in 
January 1861 of the extraordinarily rich prospects 
on Antler Creek, about twenty miles from the mouth 
of Keithley Creek, constituting the principal attrac- 
tion in the rush of 1861. The news spread fast; all 
who could go to Cariboo, or to the Cariboo lakes and 
their wonderful tributaries, went at short notice, until 
about one thousand five hundred miners from the 
coast, from Oregon, and from California had crossed the 
divide separating the waters of the Quesnel from Bear 
River, and speedily overflowed into the adjoining 
river valleys of the Willow and Cottonwood, around 
the flanks of Bald Mountain. ^^ 

"Jl/ar/e's V. I. and B. C, 74; Mallandaine's B. C. Direct07-y, 1863, 201. 
It -was the reflux to the seaboard of the successful miners on Keithley and 
Harvey creeks in the fall of ISGO, and the exhibition of their gold at Vic- 
toria says Allan, that started the Cariboo excitement. Allan's Cariboo, 'MS., 
3-4. During this first rush to Cariboo there was enough travel for a time to 
crowd to sutfocation the steamer Enterprise, the only boat at that time ply- 
ing between Victoria and the Mainland. From Yale the men carried their 
food and blankets on their back. Courterey's Min., B. C, MS., 3. On Antler 
Creek there were a few score of men in the autumn of 18G0. Notwithstanding 
the secrecy the discoverers endeavored to maintain, the discoveries were so 
tempting that when the ne'ws reached the Quesnel a rush took place to Antler 
in the middle of the winter of 18G0-1. Up to its falls, five miles below the little 
Cariboo Lake, the north branch had been found to contain more or less gold. 
Then there was a blank in ascending the valley of that stream, where scarcely 
anything was found. But the discoverers of the diggings at Antler Creek, 
not contented with these results, on their way thither had crossed the lower 
Cariboo Lake to the mouth of Keithley Creek, and ascended that stream 
into the midst of the Bald and Snowshoe mountains. From this point they 
were able to see to the northward in the direction of the descent of Antler, 
or Bear Pdver Valley. The route from the fork of the Quesnel, taken by the 
body of pioneers who m the autumn of 18G0 followed the discoverers to Antler 
creek, was up the left bank of the north branch to Mitchell's bridge. Mitchell 



480 GOLD IN THE CAKIBOO COUNTRY. 

One important result to the country was the im- 
petus given by these discoveries to road-building, 
arising from the necessity of carrying supplies into the 
mines, ^oth governments and individuals assisted at 
this, and before the close of 1861, efficient pack-trails 
gave free access to all important mining localities.^" 
Incited by the discoveries on Keithley, Harvey, Ant- 
ler, and Cunningham creeks in the spring of 1861, a 
number of miners wandered farther in various direc- 
tions to prospect. First Grouse Creek, forming with 
Antler Creek the head-waters of Bear River, was dis- 
covered to be equally entitled to attention, and from 
the head of this creek the valley of William Creek, 
on the head-waters of Willow River, was not only 
visible to the enterprising explorers, but within easy 
reach. The same ridge, culminating in Mount Agnes, 
disclosed to them on looking westward the valleys 
of Lio^htnino- and Lowhee creeks, tributaries of Swift 
and Cottonwood rivers. Nothing was wanting but 
the disappearance of the snows to enable the pros- 
pectors to descend these several valleys, and to com- 
plete the series of discoveries which in the course of 
that notable season made most of them famous. ^^ The 
actual mining developments of 1861 began with the 
arrival of additional forces from every mining district 
in the country, forming at the end of May a population 
of from one thousand to one thousand four hundred 

made bloaks and windlass, and built the piers of the bridge without assist- 
ance, a work reflecting great credit upon him for both skill and X3erseverance. 
Thence the trail followed the right bank to little or lower Cariboo Lake, 
distant from Quesuel Fork twenty miles. Crossing lower Cariboo Lake, it led 
to the mouth of Keithley Creek, ascended that stream for five or six miles, 
and struck north-east through the Bald, Snowshoe, and Swift River mountaias. 
JSfind, in B. C. Papers, MS., iv. 51. 

^'^HazUt's Cariboo, 115; Nind's Hept., March 1861, in B. C. Papers, iv. 
51-2. See also TrutcWs Map. Freight from Yale to Quesnel Fork in 1861 
was $1 per pound. Thence to Antler, before the completion of the pack-trail, 
the Indians carried provisions in the early part of the season of 1861 for 85 
cents to $1 per pound. By July the trails were opened, and pack-trains 
reached Antler, reducing the price of provisions to 55 and 65 cents a pound, 
ctaa of beef from 50 cents to 20 cents a pound. B. G. Directory, 1863, 201. 

^^ On the completion of the Cariboo wagon-road from the mouth of the 
Quesnel to Lightning Creek in 1865, there was a reversal of the order in which 
the several streams became known to the world. 



CARIBOO IX CALIFORNIA. 4SI 

miners, a large portion of whom were occupied with 
transportation trade in its various branches, and in 
road-making. Further accessions later in the season 
furnished a total prospecting, exploring, and actual 
mining population of about fifteen hundred. ^^ The 
country now for the first time became known as Cari- 
boo. This was simply the extension to the entire 
region explored, of the name of the Cariboo Lakes, 
situated on the north fork of the Quesnel, from wdiich 
the explorations may be said to have started. 

The Fraser excitement was never a more universal 
topic of conversation in California than was Cariboo 
at Victoria in the autumn of 1861; it seemed hardly 
credible even to those who had been accustomed to 
see rich diggings and lucky strikes. The news spread 
farther, and thousands of people from California, 
Canada, England, and every other quarter of the 
globe ascended the valley of the Fraser early in the 
season of 18G2. Owing to the unexpected distance, 
and the difficulty of reaching Cariboo before the com- 
pletion of the wagon-road, many turned back without 
entering the mines, while others consumed on the way 
the provisions intended for the relief of those who had 
wintered in the mines; consequently there was almost 
a famine at Cariboo.^^ 

Expl(^ration in 1862 was, nevertheless, vigorously 
prosecuted by an actual mining population estimated 
at five thousand in Cariboo district. Although extend- 
ing over an area of fifty miles square, the operations 
were chiefly in contiguous ground, and resulted in the 

^* London Times' cor., quoted in Cariboo Gold-Jiekls, 49-52. At the end of 
the season of 18G1, the Times' correspondent modified somewhat his previous 
figures of 1,400 at the end of May, and gave the total number of actual miners 
in the Cariboo district, including Quesnel Fork and fifty miles below, during 
the whole season, at 1,500. Loudon Times, Feb. 6, 18G2, in Mot/ne'.s B. C, 
442. He furnished no estimate of the proj)ortion engaged in trade and trans- 
portation, but left it to be inferred that these were to be adiled. Probably 
the largest number of miners actually at work prospecting and mining at any 
one time during the season of 18(51 never exceeded 1,000; while the general 
work of exploration under consideration engaged the whole 1,500. In June 
1861, Dougliis estimated the total population at 1,500. B. C. Papers, iv. 50. 

•* Miners and prospectors together were obliged to travel out after pro- 
visions, paying one dollar to one dollar and a half per pound. 
IIisT. Brit. Col. 31 



4S9. GOLD IN THE CARIBOO COUNTR-Y. 

production of a total yield from Cariboo thus far of 
about $3,000,000/" 

Of the heroic deeds of the early prospectors there 
is evidence on every hand, but such exploits were of 
every-day occurrence in the pioneer army that was 
advancing upon the strongholds of the country under 
the pressure of the gold mania; and it was not the 

^*The American consul estimated the total mining population of British 
Columbia for 18G2 at 15,000, three fourths of the people being from California, 
Oregon, and Washington. Allen Francis, in U. S. Commercial ReL, 1SG2, 148. 
Discoveries continued to be made as a matter of course every year after IS61, 
but they were of local rather than of geographic? 1 importance, and pertained 
chiefly to mining developments, in localities henceforth having a history of 
their own. The three principal mining-camps in 1862 were Wdliam, Light- 
ning, and Lowhee creeks, employing a total number of 5,000 miners. Cour- 
terey's Min., B. C, MS., 10. From these local discoveries important mining 
developments were made in all directions. On Last Chance Creek, a tribu- 
tary of Lightning Creek, hill-diggings were found early in 1862 which 
were deemed highly important; Van Winkle, Davis, Anderson, and other 
gulches in the same neighborhood were successfully worked, and on Burns, 
Lowhee, Nelson, Sugar, and Willow creeks, similar developments were made 
the same season. B. C. Directory, 1863, 202. Up to 1864 the list of richer 
creeks developed by sinking shafts into the deep channels embraced Keithley, 
Goose, Cunningham, Lightning, Jack of Clulis, Grouse, Chisholm, Sovereign, 
Last Chance, Anderson, Fountain, Harvey, Nelson, Stevens, Snowshoe, Cali- 
fornia, Thistle, Sugar, Willow, McCallum, Tababoo, Conklin, Lowhee, and 
William creeks, etc. Macjie's V. I. and B. C, 146. A series of letters written 
in the autumn and winter of 1861-2, by Donald Fraser, the Lonaon Times' 
correspondent, pictured the discoveries and excitements of the preceding year 
in somewhat roseate but not overdrawn coloring. Fraser simply omitted the 
dark side of the picture; and he was particularly blamed by the English arrivals 
for speaking prematurely of the stage-coaches on the proposed wagon-road, 
when it appeared, to their grief, after travelling 7,000 miles, that a walk of 
400 or 500 miles farther, carrying a load, would be necessary to finish the 
journey. Allan's Cariboo, MS., 8. In all several thousand British subjects, 
from England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, were induced by these 
letters to undertake the journey to British Columbia in the spring of 1862. 
Macfie vouched for the siibstautial correctness of the statements made by 
Donald Fraser. I^. /. and B. C, 75. Some of the British immigrants brought 
with them placards of a speculative transportation company, circulated in 
England, where tickets were sold for Cai'iboo direct, picturing the stage- 
coaches that were to carry them from Yale. But the holders of such tickets 
ascertained as soon as they landed in America that there were no arrange- 
ments to make good the promise. On the way from Yale to Cariboo there 
were comparatively few houses, so that provisions had always to be carried 
at least from one to three days. An overland party from Canada by way of 
Yellowhead Pass, late in 1862, abandoned their horses at the head-waters 
of the Fraser, and turning them loose, built rafts to float down the river 
to Fort George. Four of the party, not caring to venture on so perilous a 
journey, turned back, but not finding the horses, they finally undertook to 
reach Fort George on foot, two of the Rennie brothers perishing during a 
snow-storm. Those on the raft soon entered a caiion where a number of them 
were drowned. Allan's Cariboo, MS., 15-18. In 1862, P. H. Lewis and other 
Oregoniaas went to Cariboo overland by way of Okanagan. Lewis' Coal Dis., 
MS., 16. 



THE HEROIC IN GOLD-MINIXG. 483 

custom of the time to dignify the search for the sor- 
did metals with any title of heroism. Yet had such 
deeds been performed in the name of war, science, or 
religion, doubtless their stories would have been told, 
and the names of the heroes preserved and honored. 
The prospector's fame depended upon his success in 
finding gold ; and it was restricted to the small circle 
that shared in the benefits of the discovery, to be lost 
sight of as soon as the last nuggets parted company 
with him. The romantic and tragic extremes seemed 
naturall}^ united in his career, but otherwise than as 
prospectors and discoverers, the lives of Keithlcy, Mc- 
Donald, Rose, Dietz, and Cunningham were blank, 
and might have been fitted to any imaginary previous 
or subsequent career belonging to the scene. Rose, 
an American, and McDonald, a Canadian from Cape 
Breton Island, are credited by Governor Douglas as 
the greatest of the discoverers in Cariboo. McDon- 
ald worked hard for three years, and amassed con- 
siderable wealth, with which he came down to Victoria 
to recruit himself. Rose left shortly after this dis- 
covery in quest of new mines, and was found in the 
woods dead from starvation. William Dietz, the dis- 
coverer of William Creek, the richest stream of all, 
survived till 1877, only to die a pauper at Victoria. 
Keithley, who gave his name to the first discovered 
of the rich creeks of Cariboo, held a valuable claim at 
Quesnel Fork in 1860-1.'^ 

^' Keithley's claim at Quesnel Fork was on the hill-side, and was one 
of the richest in that vicinity. B. C. Papers, iv. 50. Keithley Creek, the 
first discovered of the characteristic rich creeks of Cariboo proper, was 
only twenty miles distant. In regard to the discoverers of Antler Creek, an 
entry in Douglas journal made at Lytton, June 5, 1861, mentions that 
'Rose, an American, and McDonald, a Canadian, are the two great pros- 
pectors who have discovered the Cariljoo <liggings. ' Doufjhis' Private Papers, 
MS., 1st ser., 146. In a despatch to the duke of Newcastle, written on his 
return to Vancouver Island, he said that ' the Cariboo gold district was dis- 
covered by a fine athletic young man of the name of McDonald, a native of 
the Island of Cape Breton, of mixed French and Scotch descent, comV)ining in 
his personal appearance and character the courage, activity, and remarkalile 
powers of endurance of both races. His health had suflTered from three j'ears' 
constant exposure and privation, wliich iu<Uiced him to repair with his well- 
earned wealth to this colony for medical a.ssistanco. His verbal report to me 
is interesting, and conveys the idea of an almost exhaustless gold-field extend- 



484 GOLD IN THE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 

The hardships of exploration undergone in these 
remote and rugged regions afforded frequent examples 
of the miracles that can be wrought by the will over 
the bod}^ From Quesnel Fork, the highest point in 
the basin of the Fraser River where supplies could be 
delivered by means of pack-animals in 1860, journeys 
of several months were undertaken through tangled 
forests, rugged canons, and over lofty mountains, bur- 
dened until late in the spring wdth snows. The pros- 
pector ventured hundreds of miles, in the face of 
starvation, into a country which contained little game, 
and was scarcely visited even by Indians. The ad- 
venturer of the Rose type threw himself into the 
mountains with reckless abandon, risking body and 
soul in their fastnesses, and trusting to the genius 
of the region to take pity and guide him into the 
subfluvial caverns lit up by the yellow light he loved 
so well. 

The miner, like the sailor, had glimpses of nature in 
supernatural moods. He learned the lesson of a soli- 
tary man's helplessness. Fancies and superstitions 
took hold on him in one form or another. Alone with 
his thoughts sometimes for days and weeks together, 
delving in unfamiliar surroundings, under the influ- 

ing through the quartz and slate formations in a northerly direction from Cari- 
boo Lake. ' B. C. Papers, iv. 58. Rose was one of the most adventurous of the 
pioneers. Milton and Cheadle, Whymper and others, all tell the same stories 
of the first-named author, only diflfering from Douglas in calling him a Scotch- 
man. AVhen the crowd rushed in upon Rose, McDonald, and Dietz, on 
Antler Creek in 1860-1, Rose and Dietz left in search of new diggings. Rose 
disappeared for months. His absence gave no concern to his friends, among 
whom similar prospecting journeys into the wilds were of every -day occur- 
rence. Finally, another party of prospectors happened to follow his track 
far into tlie wilderness, and came upon his body in the woods. Near it 
on the branch of a tree was hanging his tin cup, on which was scratched, 
with the point of a knife-blade, the legend, 'Dying of starvation. Rose.' 
A^. W. Pass, by Land, 364-5; Whymper s Alashi, 35. "William Dietz, the 
discoverer of the diggings on William Creek, ascended Bald Mountain from 
Antler Creek early in 1861, and was the first to report the position of the 
valley of Willow River. He afterward prospected its head-waters, but with 
little success, and announced the discovery of gold on the stream called 
AVilliam Creek by some, and Humbug Creek by others. Dietz died a pauper 
at Victoria in 1877. Another of the earliest miners on William Creek, who 
became wealthy as the owner of the Black Jack mine, was at Victoria in the 
winter of 1877-8, dependent on charitj' f or his daily bread. Allan's Cariboo, 
MS., 11. 



THE QUESNEL AND HORSEFLY. 485 

ence of natural objects, encompassed by the evolu- 
tion imps of the dark caiion, the elevated region, the 
lonely lake, the unknown stream, not unfrequently his 
dreams or haps of a trifling nature formed his sole 
mental pabulum; and the imagination found wing in 
the direction of his desires, often shaped by some 
creed spirituahstic. Plera, the goddess who loved 
Jason and all his crew of adventurous Greeks, would 
keep an eye on his fortunes also, and would lead him 
straight to his goal, as among the thrice worshipful 
of the Argonauts. In some of these men a mental 
or moral bend due to prior life, furnished the tragic 
w^oof that ran through their web of romance, forming 
its most essential part. Ever3"thing had gone wrong; 
there was no human remedy. All that could be done 
was to throw themselves away, to give themselves 
wholly over to wickedness, since the worst fate staring 
them in the face might be modified and temporarily 
or partially escaped by the aid of the appreciative if 
not pitying spirit of evil. Whatever their fancies, 
scores of venturesome miners were lost; some never 
more to be heard of. 

Having accounted for the settlement of Cariboo, 
we are prepared to survey the history of the several 
creeks in detail. At Quesnel Fork, the Fraser River 
miners worked during the larger part of the season of 
1859, and this was the first point, aside from Fraser 
River, to develop into a permanent camp. Quesnel 
Fork had an important geographical position, and 
was easily reached by the plateau trail from William 
Lake. It was the point of divergence in two or three 
different directions, chiefly along the north and south 
forks of the Quesnel, the latter branching into Horse- 
fly River, and formed the supply depot for the Cariboo 
region during the discovery period, and even after- 
wards to some extent. The mining-camp here was 
beside the centre of an extensive mining district, 
with tunnels, dams, and water-^wheels, and as such it 



486 GOLD Df TKE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 

early assumed tlie dignity of a village or town.^^ 
Though much of its prestige departed on the com- 
pletion of the Cariboo wagon-road, by way of the 
mouth of the Quesnel, its permanency and local im- 
portance were sufficiently well established to maintain 
down to 1875 three well-filled stores doing a large 
business with pack-trains, and two butcher-shops, 
besides the usual miscellaneous establishments of a 
mining town ; but the white miners had by this time 
abandoned the diggings to Chinese, who were content 
with the less yielding bench deposits/^ 

The enterprising men who worked the bars of the 
Quesnel in the summer of 1859 were most successful 
in the valley of the main stream or south branch, 
opening into Quesnel Lake. Proceeding on rafts along 
the shores of that lake, thej^ came to a large river 
entering from the south, which was named Horsefly 
River. They ascended the stream until it branched, 
and on the smaller tributary. Horsefly Creek, leading 
to Horsefly Lake, they discovered the richest placers 

^®H. M. Ball reported to Governor Douglas iinder date of Lytton, Dec. 18, 
1859, that at the fork of the Quesnel some miners had struck the 'blue 
lead,' a deposit of auriferous gravel, 'well known iu California.' It was most 
extensively developed, wrote Ball, at Horsefly River, and was supposed to 
cover large areas of country. B. C Papers, iii. 93. In the winter of 
.1860-1, during the low stage of the water in Quesnel River, mining was 
carried on actively and successfully in the Led of the river at the Forks. 
Several companies constructed wing-dams and water-wheels, extracting con- 
siderable quantities of gold from the river in that manner. Ihe river formerly 
ran in different channels through the alluvial flats, and at different levels 
along the benches. Good prospects were obtained on the benches 100 to 200 
feet above the river, which it was supposed would remunerate a large body 
of miners under more favorable conditions in the future. Keithley and 
Diller had a claim on the hill-side, sixty feet above the river. This was 
discovered in 1860, and proved, after some tunnelling in search of the lead, 
remarkably rich. Afterward the lead appeared to have been lost. Nind, in 
B. G. Papers, iv. 50. 'Both branches of the Quesnelle,' ■wrote Donald 
Fraser, in the midst of the Cariboo excitement, ' are highly auriferous. Tlie 
returns for last summer, 1861, were that nine out of ten of the claims paid 
over an ounce a day to the hand... The diggings must be rich to have re- 
tained any miaers so close to Cariboo, where fortunes were made in the course 
of a few weeks.' London Times' cor., Vancouver Island, Jan. 20, 1862, in 
Bawlintjs' Confederation, 117-18. 

^^In 1875 no white men remained in the diggings, nor in the district in- 
cluding Keithley Creek. In order to work the large flat back of the village 
of Quesnel Fork, a ditch a mile in length was constructed in 1875 by the 
Chinese, who anticipated that the ground would yield them from §3 to $6 a 
day each. Hare, in j\lin. Mines liepL, 1875, 13-14. 



COQUETTE AND CEDAR CREEKS. 4S7 

found up to that time in the basin of the Quesnel, 
bearing a close resemblance, if the declarations of 
Californians could be trusted, to the 'blue lead' 
gravels in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. One 
party of five miners working near the close of the 
season of 1859, with two rockers, took out one hun- 
dred and one ounces of gold in a week; after which 
they were obliged to abandon their operations on ac- 
count of the severity of the weather. ^*^ 

Owing doubtless to the common difficulty here en- 
countered for the first time, in reaching; and follo'svinix 

. . . 

the bed of the old channel, mining failed to be perma- 
nently profitable on the Horsefly and the region lying 
to the northward of Quesnel Lake. After 1867 opera- 
tions came to a stand, to be revived for a short time 
only in 1876, when some good prospects created a 
rush. This failed to realize the expectations formed, 
and the district relapsed into oblivion. From Ques- 
nel Lake to Fraser River, at the mouth of the Ques- 
nel, extending all along Quesnel River, there was 
supposed, from innumerable developments, to be a 
good hydraulic mining country, which in the future 
would prove to be valuable. On the south branch, 
below the outlet of Quesnel Lake, mining continued 
to be prosecuted, and in 1872 a Chinese company was 
supposed to be still making ten dollars a day to the 
man.-^ Meanwhile developments had been made at 
Coquette and Cedar creeks, pointing to the exist- 

^ Ball's Beport, Dec. 18, 1859, in B. C. Papers, iii. 93. It was reported 
before the close of 1859 that they had stiuck the identical 'blue lead,' pre- 
senting the same indications of an abundance of gold, and extending in a 
direction nearly north and south across Horsefly Crock, with a lateral extent 
of nearly ten miles. This ' blue lead ' was traced ' a distance of thii-ty miles.' 
All the indications of the upper strata were said to be similar to those of the 
blue lead in California, the first gold stratum being found at a depth of twenty- 
live feet. There was a false bed-rock of ' bastard talc,' which the miners did 
not understand. The whole country to the southward of Quesnel Lake was 
found later to contain deep gravel deposits resembling the blue leads. Har- 
nett's Lectures, 30; DawMii on J//«f'.-.-, 41. 

2^ They worked on a bench of the south fork of tlie Quesnel, 60 feet above 
the river, bringing water upon their ground by means of a wheel. Carilx>o 
Sentinel, Aug. 13, 1872. Being easier of access than "William Creek, with 
better climate and longer season, and perhaps less expensive to work, these dig- 
gings were considered to have iuiportant advantages. Harnett's Lectures, 29. 



4S8 GOLD IN THE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 

ence, probably throughout the entire basin of Ques- 
nel Lake, of a widely extended and important placer 
region. The Cedar Creek diggings proved to be val- 
uable, yielding steadily as well as largely for some 
time. The Aurora claim, with flumes and sluices 
c(jsting $8,000, yielded, mostly in 18GG, $20,000; the 
Moosehead claim, costing $2,000 to open, paid $7,000 
the first year; tlie Barker claim, also located in 18GG, 
and costing $7,000 to open, paid $2,000 in a year; 
and tlie Discovery claim was yielding, in September 
18GG, $15 to $20 a day at a point where it was sliallow. 
In August 18G7, the Aurora was paying one hundred 
ounces a week, and other claims from $10 to $20 a 
day to the man.^'^ Coquette Creek failed to respond 
to the prospects first obtained in 18GG, and was chiefly 
given over to Chinese. ^^ 

On the north branch of the Quesncl there were de- 
velopments not unlike these on the south branch,^* 

''■'' Victoria Weekly Cohnid, June 25, 1868. Cedar Creek was first ascended 
by a prosi)ecting party in 1802, l)ut was abandoned until 1805. In 18GG 
a party of miners from William Creek ol^tainod there a prospect of .'ii'119, 
causing a rush. Id. In September 1S(J7 both tiie Aurora and Discovery were 
averging .$20 a day to the man. Cariboo Sentinel, Sept. 2G, 18G7. The 
Discovery company, which had taken out several thousand dollars, ex- 
pended that amount further upon their claim. A few miners still work- 
ing in June 18G7 were taking out from $5 to .$20 a day. The pay dirt 
Avas from G to 8 feet thick. Visionary Californians pronounced it to be the 
'blue lead' tliat had paid so well at William Creek, 'commencing on Horse- 
fly Creek, and running directly through this section.' The Aurora Company, 
in July, 18G7, completed a ilume 2,00l) feet in length, dumping into Qwesnel 
Lake. Some of the ground on the bed-rock yielded $2.25 to the pan. Id., 
July HO, 1807. 

^^ The discovery of Coquette Creek was credited, together with that of 
Cedar Creek, to J. E. Edwards, one of the jirospectors of the Aurora claim on 
Vv'illiam Creek, in I8G0. Victoria Colonist, July 28, 1806. Another au- 
thority states that Corpiette Creek was originally opcne<l by a Cornishman, 
jircsumably Edwards, who lost the lead, wliereupon it was Sfild to the 
Chinese. J/arnetl's Lectures, 2!). No prospects were foun<l by the company 
in the opening made by them on the supposed bed-rock, which it was recorded 
resembled an ash-pit, a cut GO feet in width having been sluiced across the 
creek to test it. For twenty days expended in accomplishing that work there 
was a yield of only .$52. Victoria Colonl-st, Sept. 25, 1800. Lining and Company, 
after prospecting at another place for a month, al-io abandoned their ground. 
J L, JJiili/, Oct. 11th. Tlie pertinacity of the Chinese in 1807 again attracted 
white men to the creek, but without producing any important results. 

^' Black Bear Creek in the same range of mountains as Cedar and Coquette 
creeks, but on the opposite side, draining into the north fork of the Qu«*Hnel, 
was mined by a discovery company in 18G7. They sluiced into a blue clay, 
finding coarse gold. Victoria, Colonid, Aug. G, 1867. 



GENERAL MINING DJ:VKLOrMENT. 489 

particularly on tlio riglit-baiik tributaries, tlic Keith- 
ley, Suowslioc, Harvey, and Cuuniughain creeks, 
draining the eastern slopes of the Bald Mountains, 
and whereon modern erosions had laid bare, for short 
distances, the deeper channels of the ancient streams. 
When the bed of the north branch was prospected in 
1859-GO, it was found to contain i)rofital)le i)lacers as 
far up as the Cariboo lakes," but here in the absence 
of o-()l(l-l)earing soil at the surface, want of success 
had the etfect to throw back the advance upon Cari- 
boo ])roper for that year, so that Keithlcy, ]^arvey, 
and (Jrouse creeks were not worked until the autunui 
of 18G0. 

On Keithlcy Creek mining was so successfully 
])rosecuted in 18(30 that several stores were erected 
thci'e,''*' and near its mouth the town of Keithlcy came 
into existence in 18G1, as supply depot for the entire 
region of the north branch of the Quesncl.'"'^ The gold 
on the creek consisted partly of solid nuggets paving 
the bed-rock within a few feet of the surface. A party 
of five men, in June 18G1, divided one thousand two 
hundred dollars between them as the product of a 
single day's labor, and their daily average for some 

'* In the spring of 1802 preparations were made on a largo scale for wing- 
damming at (liiroreiit places; but an early thaw raiseil tiie water« of tlie lako 
ami river, sweeping away all the dama ami water- wlieela, tlio result of several 
montlis of lianl work in the coldest part of tlic winter. B. ('. Durrionj, 18(i3, 
2(H). The north fork was rich down to the bridge, where the trail from Quea- 
nel Fr)rk3 crossed it. Below that point tlic climate changed. Harnett's Lee- 
lurcA, 27. 

■•"'Two store buildings were erected near its inoutli at lower Cariboo Lake; 
another store was built and opened by Davis in advance of the lirst-mem- 
tioned six miles up tiio stream, on the line of the pioneer trail. Niii'/'x 7tV- 
jiort, Marcli 27, ]8(J1, in Ji. C. Paj)crs, iv. 50-1. Keithlcy was reached by 
Commissioner Niiul in the winter of 18G0-1; crossing over Cariboo Lake, ho 
found tiio two store buildings not yet occupied, while Davis' store was already 
a centre of trade and mining, jllany thousand feet of bmdier wtre whip- 
sawed and ready in March 18G1 at tlio latter point for Huming tlie bed of 
Keithlcy Creek. 

■■" In .Juno 18G1, the town of Kcitidey consisted of three grocery stores, a 
bakery, restaurant, butcher-shop, blacksmith-shop, and several taverns, kept 
in tents and log houses. IJecf cattle were driven to that point from Oregon. 
Tliere were, in Juno ]8()], 200 men in the creek, of whom 75 were engaged in 
mining. Curilioo Oold-jtililn, 53-8. In 1875 it still supported three or ffnir 
stores, one of tliem koiit by a Chinaman, lliire, in Miii. Mhii'n Ilcpt., 1875, 
1.3. It eontinueil until recent years to bo the principal mining and tra<ling 
point in the vicinity of the Cariboo lakes. 



490 GOLD IX THE CATvIBOO COUNTRY. 

time was said to be a pound weight of gold. In Sep- 
tember 1861, several companies were making from fifty 
to one hundred dollars a day to the man in the bed 
cf the creek, and one hundred dollars in the dry-dig- 
gings on the hill-side. Flumes were built of enormous 
size and length, and numerous wheel-pumps were set 
in motion.^^ In 1867 the lead was lost; yet the 
Chinese on the creek continued to make money, the 
claim at the mouth of the creek paying from twelve 
to sixteen dollars a day to the digger. After 1875 
the yield fell oif.^^ 

Harvey and Cunningham creeks, also tributaries 
of the north branch of the Quesnel, and discovered 
in the autumn of 1860, received no attention until 
the Antler Creek excitement in 1861, and were not 
entered upon in larger force till 1864. On Harvey 
Creek the conditions and history of mining resembled 
those of Keithley. Droughts and floods and other 
serious difficulties of deep mining stood here also in 
the way of development; so that the stereotyped 
verdict of exhaustion was passed upon it in 1876. 
On Cunningham Creek, a stream about thirty miles 
in length, a number of claims were taken up in the 
middle of February 1861; and in the following year 
the deep diggings were prospected to some extent, but 
abandoned as unprofitable. 

In 1864 further developments were made which 
surprised the old miners who were acquainted with 
the ground. Four of the white men made a dis- 
covery near the mouth that the old bed of the 
creek was not beneath the present stream, but in 
a deep channel parallel to it, a hundred yards 

^^ The lumber was supplied by a saw-mill completed in September. This 
Avas a minaia itself, furnishing lumber at 25 cents a foot and upwards. London 
Times' cor. Vicloria, Nov. 29, 1S61, in Cariboo Gold-fields, 51-8. Joseph 
Patterson and brother informed Governor Douglas that the miners at Keithley 
Creek in 18G1 were making from two to three ounces a day. Douglas' Despatch, 
Oct. 24, 1801, in Hazl'M's Canboo, 124. 

'^^ Harnett's Lectures, 27. The creek was profitably worked as late as 
1877, but the best ground was believed to be worked out. Keithley Creek 
v/as always subject either to a drought or a flood. Min. Mines EepL, 1876, 
420; 1877, 399 



VERY MANY CREEKS. 491 

aside. ^"^ The deeper they went into this channel the 
licher they found it, and in one day four hundred and 
sixty dollars apiece were obtained. The result was, 
that about two hundred miners located fresh claims 
on the creek, many of them yielding well.^^ The ex- 
citement continued throughout 18G5, and then fol- 
lowed another decline, the result of failure in tracing, 
or working the deep lead.'^^ 

Antler Creek, the original objective point of the 
gold-seekers who explored Cariboo in 18G1, was the 
iirst in that region to attain a decided reputation after 
Keithle}- Creek, and the first to establish the char- 
acter of the Cariboo region. Its fame, like that of 
Keithley and William creeks, also rested upon the 
circumstance that the present stream had in one or 
more places cut down into the ancient channeL The 
London Times' correspondent wrote that the bed-rock 
was found paved with gold. Every shovelful con- 
tained a considerable quantity, in some cases as much 
as fifty dollars. Nuggets could be picked out of the 
soil by hand, and the rocker jdelded fifty ounces in a 
few hours. ^^ The secret of the wonderful riches of the 
deposit in Antler Creek was too important to be kept. 
It drew all the venturesome members of the popula- 
tion domiciled in the neighborhood over the dangerous 
winter trail of the Snowshoe Mountain in the months 
of January and February 1861.^* A single ]og-cabin 

^Harc, in Min. Mines BepL, 1876, 420; Ninds, in 5. C. Papers, iv. 51. 
They luul found that the channel worn in the bed-rock under tlie present 
stream had a rim on one side beyond which the bed-rock fell off into a deeper 
old channel to a depth then unknown. 

31 Victoria WeeUy ColonU, Sept. 6, 1864. The proprietors of the Ken- 
tucky claim engaged in ground sluicing, took out C'750 one day in 1805, and 
§1,000 the day following. Id., July 11, 1865. 

^'■^ A Victoria company employing twenty men erected costly machinery 
upon the creek in 1870, for the purpose of exploring the deep ground, by_all oth- 
ers so far unsuccessfully attempted. Bow-son, in Min. Mi net Rept., 1870, 41 S. 

** J/rrr/i'e's V. I. and B. C, 244. The discovery was ma.le so late in the 
autumn of 1800 that on the mornmg following it a foot of snow had covered 
the ground, and nothing could be tlone at mining until the spring of 1801. 
Wriijht, in Orcrland Monthly, Dec. 1869, 526. Commissioner Nind testifies 
that the l)ed-rock was but a short ilistance \xnder the surface in a narrow 
valley. B. C. Papers, iv. 51. 

^Mrold Connnissioner Nind, who was called to settle mining disputes here, 
arrived at Antler Creek early in March, and found the snow six or seven feet 



492 GOLD IN THE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 

built by Rose and McDonald, the discoverers of the 
diggings in the fall of 1860, was at this time the only 
evidence of settlement, but by June ten houses and a 
saw-mill had risen, and during the following months 
mining was at its height. Eleven companies were 
working with large profits, and individuals were mak- 
ing as much as $1,000 a day, while the yield of the 
several sluice and flume claims was 60 ounces a day 
to the man, and the daily aggregate of the creek 
during the summer of 1861 over $10,000. Much of 
the ground yielded $1,000 to the square foot. Three 
quarters of a mile below the town of Antler two part- 
ners were said to have obtained from 40 to 60 ounces 
a day each, with the rocker. ^^ 

The town of Antler grew as if by magic, and counted, 
in August, twenty substantial buildings, comprising 
stores, whiskey-saloons, and dwelling-houses, sur- 
rounded by a much larger number of tents,^^ yet the 
community was on the whole remarkably sober, law- 
abiding, and quiet.^'' 

deep, ami the miners living in holes, which they had dug in the snow, subsist- 
ing ou the scanty supplies carried in over the Snowshoe trails. The com- 
missioner was occupied six days in ascertaining the claims to ground, and 
everything was finally settled without disturbance, for ' English law,' it was 
maintained, could not be transgressed ' with the same impunity as California 
law.' Nind, Lu. ii. C. Pa-pers, iv. 50-1. 

3^ Water «^«s selling at 50 cents an inch. Times' cor., in Cariboo Gold- 
Jields, 53-8. In a leader of Feb. 7, 1861, the London Times summarized 
the developments on Antler Creek from May to September 18G1, and Donald 
Eraser's statements as correspondent were reviewed, and accepted as trust- 
worthy. A miner named Smith was spoken of as having obtained 3^ pounds 
of gold per day with the rocker. Other claims working with sluices were 
reported to be yielding regularly as miich. Quoted in McDonald's B. C, 
110-15. Small claims on Antler Creek yielded from 100 to 130 ounces a 
day. In 3 weeks' washing one company of 3 men obtained $83,300; another 
of 3 men, $37,500; still another of 5 men, $26,000; and another of 6 men, 
$28,000, in the same period. London Times' cor., in Macfie's V. I. and B. C, 
244-5. Governor Douglas vouched for the authenticity of the statement 
that 4 men obtained regularly from 16 to 37 ounces a day, or from 4 to 9.^ 
ounces each. Id. 

2^ Cariboo Gold-fields, 55. A Spanish muleteer, when asked in regard to 
the merits of the Cariboo mines, from which he had recently returned, re- 
plied that he had doubts until he had seen the gaming-table at Antler Creek. 
Three miners gambled away $27,000 at a sitting. 

*' Begbie wrote to the colonial secretary in September 1861: * I never saw 
a mining town anything like this. There were some hundreds in Antler, all 
sober and quiet. It was Sunday afternoon. Only a few of the claims were 
worked that day. It was as quiet as Victoria. . .They told me it was like 



COMrARATIA'E YIELD. 493 

As in the case of Keitliley Creek, and as any one 
might have anticipated had the facts of the hniited 
extent of the old channel laid bare by erosion been 
understood, there was difficulty and disappointment 
in store. Expectations had been raised which could 
not be realized at that time, though the conclusions 
in regard to the wealth of the creek had been entirely 
correct. After the shallow part of the old channel 
was exhausted, the problem of working the buried 
portion was encountered, and without systematic work 
the lead could not long be followed.^ The declension 
came about gradually. In 1867 the town of Antler 
was deserted, and only a few men remained on the 
creek, cleaning up, for the second time, the old ground. 

Grouse Creek was mined to a limited extent in 
1861-2, and then abandoned until 1864,^^ when the 
Heron claim was located upon it. After an expendi- 
ture of .^150,000 the Heron claim yielded $300,000. 
Under the supposition that the ground was worked 
out, it was then sold for $4,000 ; but on cutting an 
outlet 18 inches deeper the claim continued to yield 
from 80 to 100 ounces a week throughout the ensuing 
season.'*'' The creek was again abandoned until 1866, 

California iu '49. AVhy, you would, have seen all these fellows roaring drunk, 
amd pistols and bare kjaives in every hand.' B. O. Papers; iv. 61. 

^^ In 1SG4 a bed-rock flume company was formed at Antler. The company 
obtained a ten years' lease of sixteen and one half miles of the creek, in- 
cluding a strip of ground 100 feet in width along the creek, with the intentiou 
of introducing hydraulic mining. No heavy mechanical appliances had been 
used on the creek up to that tine. Macjic's V. I. and B. C, 245. In connec- 
tion with the miuuig operations on the creek, and t!ie prospecting that was 
done for the recovery of tlie lost lead, t!ie fact was developed, and remarked 
upon, that on the one side of the creek t!.ere -was nothing but fine gold, while 
on the other side it was all coarse. At the head of Antler Crce'.c, formerly 
the continuation of Sawmill Flat, extended a plain many miles in the opposite 
direction, and it was supposed that the extensive area embraced by these 
physical features was formerly the site of a great lake. The more ancient 
stream or deep channel of Antler Creek was supposed to liave come, much 
like the present creek, from the mountains at the M-est. Its gravels were a 
portion of an auriferous formation extentling to Grouse Creek. Harnett's 
Lectures, 27. 

^3 Because tliree men in 1S61-2 would not investigate properly their in- 
terests, having lost faith. Ilanictt's Lectures, 24. The creek is only five 
miles east of \Villiam Creek, runnuig parallel to it, and draining with Antler 
and William creeks the eastern slope of the Agnes Bal 1 ^Mountain. 

** Victoria Colonist, Jan. 21, 18GS; Harnett's Lectures, 33. 



494 GOLD m THE CARIBOO COUNTRY. 

wnen the lead was rediscovered ; and tlie Heron, Dis- 
covery, and other claims yielded from $15,000 to $20,- 
000 to the share, ^^ raising the creek to the dignity of 
one of the principal mining fields in Cariboo for the 
ensuing season/^ In 1867, thirty-five mining companies 
were at work; a saw -mill was in operation; and two 
respectable villages sprang up in the valley/^ 

Rich strikes, alternating with failures to keep the 
leads, varied the history of Grouse Creek throughout 
subsequent years. Bear River, emptying into the 
Fraser above Fort George, had numerous lakes and 
former lake-beds along its course, but beneath their 
recent and ancient sediments the miners do not ap- 
pear to have found any old channel/* 

*^ Allan's Cariboo, MS., 10-11. 

^■^ Many of the claims were yielding from $25 to $50 a day. Victoria WeeUy 
Colonist, Oct. 23, 1866. 

** A charter was procured for a bed-rock flume company, but this was sub- 
sequently revoked, and, as a result, many additional claims were located and 
recorded upon the creek. During 1867, some Frenchmen were washing out 
C-'4 to $6 a day with the rocker, while sluicing in California fashion paid from 
$;10 to $12, and hydraulic work $20 to $25 a day. Harnett's Lectures, 24-5. 
The Heron Company, in March 1867, paid a dividend of $800 to the share; 
and the Full Rig Company a dividend of $200 for a week's work. Cariboo 
Sentinel, March 30, 1867. These companies worked out the lead for a thou- 
sand feet on the channel, while above and below them it could not be found. 
In May 1867, the BlackhaM'k and Canadian companies were seeking it by a 
tunnel and incline. The Water Witch Company sank a shaft near the centre 
of the creek, and drifted into deep ground, causing an excitement, but it 
proved to be only an undulation like that in the Hard-up Company's tunnel. 
Victoria Colonist, May 7, 1867. There were two distinct leads, the more an- 
cient being aside from the present channel. From the boundaries of the 
Heron aud Hard-up claims, at the lower end of the diggings, the creek con- 
tinued in a series of flats where the channel was never found. 

**In 1869, a 'new creek ' was reported '75 to 100 miles north-east from 
Cariboo, ' ■v^'hich was much lower than the Cariboo diggings, had been burned 
over, and was overgrown by small timber. It was said to prospect 122 cents 
to the pan at the surface. Victoria Colonist, March 16, 1869. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

MINING IN CARIBOO. 

18G3-1SS2. 

Risk of William Creek — Ricn Discoveries — Large Yield— Declixe — 
Deep Mixing— ]Marysville Lead— Drainage Operations— Rich- 
field — Mosquito and Mustang Creeks — Outskirt Placers — Light- 
ning Creek — Van Winkle — Decline and Revival — Lo\\-hee — 
CaSon Creek and its Quartz — Character of Cariboo Veins — Sum- 
mary OF Yield — Cariboo Life — The Low and the Intellectual. 

William Creek has a history in many respects 
similar to that of Antler Creek. Its first-discovered 
rich deposits were shallow, and in the bed of the 
present stream, above the canon. Below these dig- 
gings was a flat, supposed to have been the bed of a 
former lake, in which the channel sank and was lost. 
Here the problem of working the deep ground by 
means of shafts and pumping, was for the first time 
systematically attempted, and profitably solved. The 
crossing of Snowshoo Mountain by the inflowing 
prospectors of 1861, and their descent into the basin 
of Bear Biver (Antler Creek), thence into the basin 
of Willow Biver (William Creek), changed the centre 
of operations from Keithley to William Creek, and 
with it the approach from a circuitous to a more 
direct route into the Bald Mountains of Cariboo. On 
the completion of the road along Lightning Creek, 
in 18G5, Barkerville on William Creek became the 
principal distributing point for the Cariboo region, 
the aggregate product of which amounted in seven 
years to $25,000,000. The creek received its name 
from William Dietz, a German who prospected upon 

(405) 



403 MINEsG IN CAIIIBOO. 

the liead-Avaters of Willow River, and was the first in 
the spring. 

The discoveries in the summer and autumn of 1861 
of the astonishingly rich lands on \Yilliam/ Lowhee, 
and Lightning creeks gave an immense impetus to 
further prospecting.^ 

A rush at once set in, and claims were w^orked in 
the shallow ground with great success, for the gold 
lay thickly studded in a layer of blue clay consisting 
of decomposed slate and gravel, wiiich in some cases 
gave prospects of over $600 to the pan. In the 
State claim this layer w^as six feet thick, and had a 
top tripjDing which ranged from a few feet to three 
fathoms in depth. Others had less difficult ground to 
work, and the yield was rapid, amounting in several 
claims to over 100 ounces a day for the season. The 
Steele party w^as reported to have obtained in tvro 
days 387 and 409 ounces, and in two months $105,000.^ 

*The name of Humbug Creek, at first applied to this most famous of 
Cariboo streams on account of its supposed worthless character, was soon 
abandoned, and l\e proper name of William Creek gained the ascendency 
to which it became justly entitled when the first noteworthy discovery was 
made at the Canon. Three seasons elapsed before the richest deposits found 
in the deep ground of William Creek were fairly develo]Ded. 'B. i).,' Barker- 
ville, Oct. ^3d, cor, of Victoria Weekly Colonist, Nov. 7, 1SG5. 

^ Thomas Brown, an American, also laid claim to the discovery, and to 
having located the first claim. Douglas' Despatch, Oct. 24, 1861, in HazUtt's 
Cariboo, 12-4. It was months, says a writer from the spot, before any authentic 
news of these discoveries reached Victoria. Reports came first that great 
quantities of gold were being obtained in a small stream near the summit of 
the mountains; no names being then attached to the localities. The daily 
yield was said to be first 20 oz., then 50 oz., 100 oz., 300 oz., and at last 400 
oz. a day, to four or five men. Many of the companies were reported to 
have so much gold that they were obliged to detail men to watch it day and 
night. At Victoria these rumors were not confided in until the gold began 
to arrive. Ragged miners finally came to the sea-coast, staggering under the 
weight of their summer's accumulation. JNlules were loaded with the pre- 
cious metal. Men were paid $20 and $50 a day to carry the gold which the 
owners of it had not the strength to bring alone. Wright, in Overland Monthly, 
Dec. 1869, 526-7. 

* Governor Douglas took down from the lips of Mr Steele, an American, 
the following statement in regard to the Steele claim in 18G1 : Their claim 
did not prospect so well as some of the others, and it was furthermore a difii- 
oult one to work, having from 8 to IS feet of stripping overlymg the aurifer- 
ous dirt. The latter was a blue clay layer 6 feet in thickness, contain- 
ing decomposed slate and gravel. A space of 25 by 80 feet of this ground 
produced in two months $105,000, A sluice was constructed, and four addi- 
tional men were hired to clear away the tailing. RaivUngs' Confederatio)i, 
lis. In the fall of xSGl Dawson and company took out of their claim on 



WILLIAM CHEEK. 497 

Toward the close of the season of 1861, all previ- 
ous discoveries were exceeded by the developments in 
the rich ground lying fifty or sixty feet under the Hat, 
below the ' Canon.' To the Barker Company belongs 
the credit of having sunk the first paying shaft into the 
new deposit, and in honor of this event the nucleus 
of a town which here sprang into existence was named 
Barkerville. Supported by the underground mining, 
the town grew rapidly in population, and maintained 
for years the position of the principal town in Cari- 
boo.* The Diller Company were among the next in 
order to bottom a shaft into the deep ground, wash- 
ing out in one day, it is said, two hundred pounds of 
gold, the largest yield recorded for one day in Cari- 
boo.^ A number of claims were located all over the 
flat, and by means of the systematic drifting and tun- 
nelling introduced in 18G2, and carried on through- 
out the year, the old channel of William Creek was 
traced for a considerable distance beneath the surface. 
Some claims yielded 100 ounces and more daily, dur- 
ing the season, three taking out $100,000 eat^i between 
October 18G2 and January 18G3. The Cunningham 
turned out over GOO ounces a day on several occasions; 
the Caledonia yielded at one time from $5,000 to 
$G,000 a day; and the Cameron and Tinker were not 
far behind.*^ 

William Creek $G00 in a single pan. Abbott and Company took out §900 
in one panful of dirt obtained three feet under the surface. HazUtt's Cariboo 
Gold-Jidds, 153-8. 

*lt was destroyed by fire in the summer of 1868, but by the end of Sep- 
tember 40 new buildings had risen. Governors DespatcJi, dated Sept. 16, 1868, 
in Carihoo Seiidiiel, Sept. 29, 1808. 

^Allans Cariboo, il8., 10, 11. Mr Allan, as editor of the Cariboo SenCnel, 
was in a position to know the fact, and ought to be good authority. Tliat 
amount equals 2,400 ounces, at .$16 worth §38,400. 

^Courtney^ Min. B. C, !MS., 6. The Cuimingham Ciaint .averaged $2,000 
a day throughout the season. It had a frontage of GOO feet. On several occa- 
sions 52 pounils of gold were taken out of it in a day. The biohop of British 
Columbia witnessed the taking out of 600 ounces, or 50 pounds, from one day's 
work. The Adams Company in 1SG2 paid ^43,000 each, clear of expenses, to 
three partners. Broivn^K E<sa'/, 30-1. The claim of AVilliam Dietz, tlie dis- 
coverer, proved to be one of the poorest on the creek; but generally the ilaims 
which were first worked at a depth not exceeding 12 feet yielded remarkable 
returns. T. Em7is, in Overl.ind Monthhj, March 1S70; B..ri. Directoni, 13o3, 
202. 

IIIST. EUIT. COL. 32 



43S MINING IN CARIBOO. 

Laro-e as was the yield of 1862, tlie followinor 
season proved even more prosperous, and received 
the appellation of the golden year. According to 
Macfie, the creek was then worked over an area of 
seven miles, and of the numerous claims about 40 
yielded handsomely, while about 20 produced steadily 
between 70 and 400 ounces a day. Palmer states that 
the chief owner of the Cameron claim went home 
with $150,000 saved by him in one .year, and Milton 
and Cheadle witnessed the process of cleaning up from 
a day's washing in the Raby, of 310 ounces, while 
they found the Cameron yielding from 40 to 112 
ounces daily.^ A number of claims were only reaching 
the bed-rock in 1864, and obtaining the usual rich 
prospects, the Wake up Jake Compan}^, for instance, 
washing 52 ounces from a panful of dirt. Other 
claim again were yielding even better than before, 
as the Ericsson, which opened in 1863 and turned out 
an average weekly amount of 1,400 ounces during the 
summer. In 1865 this claim paid nearly twice as large 
dividends as before.^ 



' Tlie average total yield of the claims on William Creek was not less 
than 2,000 ounces. Three partners of the Hard Curry Company divided 102 
pounds troy, the result of a single day's washing. Palmer, in Lond. Geog. Soc, 
Jour., xxxviii. 191-2. 'In lSo3 about 4,000 were engaged on this creek.' 
Macfie's V. I., 248; Northiuest Passage hy Land, 373. 

*In 18G4 Douglas says the claim paid $8,000 to the share, or a total of $90,- 
000 clear of expenses; and in 1835 the dividends were ^14,030 to the share; but 
of the above the government received $5,000. Douglas' Private Pai^ers, MS., 
i. 151-2. Harnett's Lectures, 12. For seven successive weeks the following 
yield was reported from the Ericsson claim: June 17, 1834, 900 oz., $14,400; 
June 24, 1804, 640 oz., $10,240; July 1, 1864, 1,430 oz., ^22,400; July 8, 1864, 
1,926 oz., $30,816; July 15, 1834, 1,£56 oz., $20,033; July 22, 1834, 1,300 
oz., $20,800; July 29, 1864, 2,C00 oz., $41,920; in all 10,042 ounces, $100,672. 
Victoria Colonist, June 21, May 24, 1864; Maclcie's V. /., -49. Wake up Jake 
claim was sold in 1837 for $100. Cariboo Sentinel, May 23, 1867. The Adams 
Company had yielded, so far as known, in all $50,030 to 100 feet; the Steele, , 
$120,000 from 80 feet; the Diller, $240,030 from 50 feet; the Cumiingham, 
$270,000 from 500 feet; the Burns, $140,000 from SO feet; the Canadian, 
$180,030 from 120 feet; the Ncversweat, $100,000 from 120 feet; the 
MofiTatt, $90,000 from 50 feet; the Tinker, $120,000 from 140 feet; the 
Watty, $11^0,003 from 100 feet. In addition to those already named 
were the Barker, Baklhead, Grier, Griffin, Wilson, Beauregard. Raljy, 
v'ameron. Prince of Wales, and many others, whose fame went through- 
o'at the world. Crawford's Prospectus Artesian Company, quoted in Ilacfie's 
V. I. and B. C, 248; McDonald's B. C, 110; Salem Statesman, Nov. 23, 
1833. 



LABOR AND RETURNS. 499 

Despite this showing, the facts could not be dis- 
guised that the excitement was over, and that the 
miners were diminishing in number. Of the fifteen 
hundred forming the estimated population of William 
Creek in November 1864, half only remained througli- 
out the winter, and the former number was not made 
up again. For this there were good reasons. The 
large yield came chiefly from few claims, while the 
l.irgcr number had returned but a small share. The 
shallow diggings whicli formed the attraction for the 
great majority were now pretty well worked out, and 
the indications for locating deeper claims on the more 
easily worked ground were becoming less sure. The 
cost of working the deeper claims was a further draw- 
back, and as the miners were now chiefly interested in 
this class of ground, it became a momentous question 
to solve the problem of cheap and eflfective operations. 

The great difficulty, the flow of water, had hitherto 
been overcome with the aid of the limited water-power 
of William Creek, and with the home-made w^ooden 
pumps of small capacity. But these means had failed 
in several operations, such as drifting the meadows 
below Barkerville, which had been undertaken on an 
extensive scale covering a distance of three miles.^ 
The Artesian Company which had obtained a twenty 
years' lease of one half mile of ground three eighths 
of a mile in width, below Barkerville, proposed under 
Crawford's direction to prospect by means of an artesian- 
well auger bringing up a panful of dirt at each raise; 
but the flow of water was not disposed of by this scheme. 
Adit levels or bed-rock flumes with powerful steam- 
pumps appeared to be the only effective means. In 
18G5, accordingly, a costly 'bed-rock flume' 1,600 feet 
in length was laid, at a first cost of $120,000, com- 

' And at a cost of several luiiulrcd thousand dollars. This work extended 
from Marysville to the junction of William Creek with Willow River, a dis- 
tance of three miles, where a former lake, or series of lakes, was supposed to 
have existed, discharging its waters into Jack of Clubs Lake, by the western 
base of the Island Mountain, instead of by the eastern, as at present. Macjie's 
V. I. ami B. C, '2G4. 



500 MININGS IN CARIBOO. 

mencing at the Canon, below the Black Jack tunnel, 
and several companies began washmg into it with a 
great increase of forces, taking out some coarse gold, 
including a thirty-seven ounce nugget. ^'^ Among the 
claims most successively worked at this time were the 
Conklin Gulch and Ericsson companies; the former 
being reported as taking out an average of 127 ounces 
a day, and the Ericsson from 900 to 2,000 ounces a 
week," 

Although the decline of the district was a conceded 
fact after 1865, there were in 1867 still over sixty 
paying claims, apart from the flume companies and 
hill claims. Some of them had been producing for 
six years, and were still producing remarkably well, 
the poorer paying wages of from eight to ten dollars 
a day to the hand. The Cunningham, California, and 
Tontine claims stood each credited w4th a yield up to 
1865 of $500,000.'" 

^"A ditch completed from Jack of Clubs Creek in 1864 at a cost of $20,000 
was iised in connection with the flume. The ditch enterprise suffered under 
legal difficulties during 1865. Cariboo Sentinel, quoted in Victoria Weekly 
Colonist, July 4, 1865. The flume had not been long in operation when 
William Creek experienced a flood which resulted in great injury to improve- 
ments of every sort, especially at Cameronton. Id., Sept. 19, 1865. Mr 
Gentile in October 1865 photographed most of the prominent claims and 
buildings at Barkerville. Id., Oct. 31, 1865. 

'1 This was in June and July 1865. Victoria Colonist, July 4, 25, 1865. 
One day 1,926 ounces were washed out. Whymper's Alaska, 34. 

1^ An idea of the costs and individual profits in the years 1862-7 may be 
obtained from the following statistics: The Cunningham claim above the 
Canon, located in 1861, with foiir interests, cost .$100,000 to work, and yielded, 
up to 1865, $500,000. The Tyack claim, located in 1861, had four mterests, 
and paid from $16 to $20 a day. The California, located in 1861, cost $150,- 
000 to work, and yielded, up to 1865, $503,000. In 1866 and 1867 this claim 
was still paying from $15 to $20 a day. The Black Jack, located in 1862, with 
6 interests, gave in 2 years $200,000, under a total expenditure of $50,000 
for work at $16 a day. In 1867 it was worked as a hydraulic claim. The 
Tontine, located in 1864, with 4 interests, cost up to 1865 inclusive $100,- 
000 for development and working, and yielded $500,000. The Dietz, located 
in 1864, paid good wages steadily. These were all above the Canon. Below 
the Canon mining was begun in 1863 at the mouth of Stout Gulch. The 
claim of High Low Jack, located in 1864, with 5 interests, paid in June 1867 
$12,000 to the share. The Pioneer yielded as well. The Alturas, located in 
1864, with 8 interests, paid off in 5 weeks, during 1866, an indebtedness of 
$23,000. On the Taft Vale claim 5 shafts were ' lost ' before the drainage 
used by the miners below was extended to its boundaries. It cost $30,000 
to open, and yielded finally from 100 to 200 ounces per week. Harnett's Lec- 
tures, 12-17. The deepest shaft in the vicinity of William Creek, or Mohawk 
Gulch, was 134 feet, without reaching the bed-rock, or less than half the 



BENCH CLAIxMS 501 

The bed-rock drain constructed in the lower part 
of William Creek was damaged by the high water of 
1867, and as a result the product of one third of the 
best claims on the creek was lost for the season, all 
the claims dependent upon it lying idle from June to 
December 1867 Great precautions were taken to pre- 
vent a recurrence of such a misfortune. High bulk- 
heads were erected round the mouths of shafts, and 
a general bulkhead was proposed for the protection of 
the town of Barkerville. By the end of January 1868 
the repairs were well advanced, and provisions being 
comparatively cheap, operations were renewed with 
good prospects for the ensuing season, aided to a great 
extent by the mining board whicli had been formed 
here in 1866 with twelve members. In 1867 a strike 
was made by the United Company on the French 
and Canadian creeks, which revived to some extent 
the hopes formed of them as early as 1863-4, owing 
to their proximity to the supposed fountain-head of 
the William Creek deposits.^^ Bench or hill claims 
were developed the same year between Richfield and 
the Caiion, but suffered greatly for want of water. ^^ 
During the prosperous days of William Creek, the 

depth of the richest deposits in Australia, and this fact was held up as an 
argument against those who began to despond. Victoria Colonist, Nov. 7, 
18li5; Allan's Carihoo, MS., 10, 11. After 18G(3 the local mining history was 
fully recorded by the prosperous though not very longdived Carihoo Sentinel, 
published by Alexander Allen at the town of Barkerville. A complete list 
of ihe companies working upon William Creek, with the number of shares, 
names of foremen, and what they were doing, was published in the number 
for ]May 28, 18GC, and copied in the Victoria Daily Colonkt of June 8, ISOG. 

'^ Three hundred ounces were taken from one shift of timber in a liill 
turned by the United Company. These creeks had been prospected during the 
winter of 1863-4, under the belief that from their position in the Bald Mountain 
they must be near the fountain-head of the rich deposits of William, (i rouse, 
and Jack of Clubs creeks. Victoria Weekly Coloniit, Feb. 12, 2.5, 1807. In the old 
Grier and Point claims the Chinese in 1807 extracted .§10,000 from a small 
crevice. Carilioo Sentinel, Oct. 14, 1867. Conklin Gulch was stiiked anew on 
both sides, and from one side to the other a number of tunnels were nni under 
the hill-sides for the purpose of striking the rich channel worked by the 
United Company. Victoria Dailu Colonist, Feb. 25, 1867; Yale Examiner, Jan. 
1, 1868. 

'* A back channel was discovered in June 1867, 300 feet in the hill behind 
the Downie claim, and the West Britain Company in the same vicinity bot- 
tomed a shaft at the depth of 47 feet, obtaining a prospect of §2.50 to the 
pan. Victoria Weekly Colonist, June 11, 1867. 



502 MIXING IN CARIBOO. 

gold deposit was traced in paying quantities down 
the stream to beyond Marysville, several miles below 
Barkerville. 

V/herever tlie deep ground had been prospected by 
means of shafts — usually about sixty feet in depth — 
it proved remarkably good, yielding from ten to 
twenty-five cents to the pan But here, unfortunately, 
occurred the excess of water, after the gravel was 
reached, which prevented the shafts from being worked; 
and with the failure of the district the village of Marys- 
ville was deserted. This, and the similar fate which 
overtook the Meadows, added to the gradual exhaus- 
tion of the available and profitable ground on William 
Creek, proved a heavy blow, not for the creek alone, 
but for the whole of Cariboo. From 1863 to 1867 the 
deep ground on William Creek had been the main- 
stay of Cariboo, as the latter was the main-stay of 
British Columbia, and mining was prosperous in pro- 
portion to the engineering skill brought into play, the 
problem being simply one of gaining access to the gold 
deposits in the old channels. It was evident that the 
late engineering methods had not answered the pur- 
pose, and that a still more effective system of drainage 
must be adopted to overcome the obstacle in the way 
to this rich ground. A deep cut was proposed for 
sluicing the old claims along the whole length of Wil- 
liam Creek, from the Canon to the Meadow s.^^ 

But nothing was done for a long time ; finally some 
San Francisco capitalists obtained a lease of ground for 
four miles along the creek for twenty-one years, and 
the Lane and Kurtz Company in 1870 erected power- 
ful steam-pumping machinery, on a scale hitherto 
unknown in the colon}^ A shaft of one hundred and 
twenty-five feet was sunk, partly in rock, and drifting 

^^ The first public proposal of a scheme for draining the Meadows was made 
in 18G8, suggesting that the government should grant a long lease of ground 
equalling 400 claims, each 50 feet wide, and extending across the valley; the 
proposed company paying .$100 for each claim. Victoria Weekly C'oloni-^t, Oct. 
31, 1SG8. This proposition was submitted to a meeting of the miners on 
William Creek, but was objected to on the ground that it would monopolize 
too large an area. Id., July 17, 1869. 



TROSPECTING EXPEDITIONS. 503 

began in the direction of the old channel, which was 
struck after a run of one hundred and forty feet, yield- 
ing a prospect of twenty-five dollars, followed by good 
returns. The water soon compelled a suspension of 
operations, but they were renewed in June 1873, with 
a thirteen-inch pump, and a new double shaft was 
sunk.^*^ Xo important result followed, however, and 
in 1876 the Meadow;-; drainage question was still a 
subject of agitation. ^^ 

In 1869 there had been a considerable improvement 
in the mining interest; Barkerville assumed greater 
importance than it had enjoyed before the fire of 
1868; prospecting expeditions came prominently be- 
fore the public, and quartz-mining began to be tliought 
of. Among the claims still worked with success in 1 8 7 6 
were those of the Forest Kose and Black Jack com- 
panies, which had commenced hydraulic mining in 
the hill, at the foot of the Canon, belonging to the 
same series of gravel deposits that formed the east side 
of the creek above it, and where the former company had 

1® The government granted them a lease for 21 years, with the privilege of 
extending it for 10 years thereafter. U. S. Commercial Bel., 1870, 231. The 
lease was signed on the payment of a bonus of $125 at the commencement, and 
§230 as rental annually thereafter; the ground extending from tlie B.dlarat 
claim to Mosquito Creek, a distance of 4 miles, one mile or less in width. The 
company agreed to build a saw-mill and a ten-stamp quartz-mill, etc. Victoria 
Weekly Colonist, Aug. 3, 1870. Edgar Dewdney maile surveys for the com- 
mencement of operations. Id., July 20, 1870. The capital employed by Kurtz 
and Lane was about §75,000. This was all the capital invested Ijy American 
citizens in this province, except a certain fluctuating amount by a branch ofHce 
of the firm of Wells, Fargo, and Company. David EcMebi, United States 
Consul at Victoria, in Commercial Bel., 1871, 641. Langevin, the Canadian 
minister of public works, visited the Mea<loivs in 1871. The ground, he 
says, yiehled largely before it was abandoned the first time. The capital of 
the company was nominally §500,000. Lamjemns Rept. Pub. Works, 1872, 7. 
Alter eighteen months of work, tlie Lane and Kurtz Company suspended 
operations on account of the increased quantity of water. Commercii'l Bel., 
1872, 4'J5; Cariboo Sentinel, Nov. 2, 1872. After a short cessation they began 
pumping again, June 27, 1873, with thirteen-inch pumps, and drained the 
works gradually. A new double shaft was sunk; a ditch a mile in length 
was constructed under a contract by Holroyd and Company, and a saw-mill 
wjia completed. Cariboo Sentinel, June 21, 28, 1873. 

^'' A bed-rock fiume was considered necessary two and a half miles in length, 
and costing §150,000. This should start on a grade from tlie falls of Valley 
Creek and strike the bed-rock of William Creek at the depth of 70 feet from 
tlie surface, opening to miners the most valuable portion of the creek between 
the Ballarat claim and the Canon, eiubraciug the town of Barkerville, Bowron, 
in Jlin. Alines Bejd., 1S7G, 411). 



504 MINING IN CARIBOO. 

in 1871 already obtained rich yields/^ The Black Jack 
Company constructed a ditch a mile in length. Hy- 
draulic mining- was also proposed for the west side of 
William Creek, where good prospects had been found 
at Mink Gulch. The shallow diggings above the Canon 
were still worked, and the bed-rock laid bare for miles 
with more or less success. A costly yet profitable 
bed-rock flume occupied the ground nearest to the 
Canon. The representative settlement of this upper 
section was Richfield, the only other collection of 
houses alono- the creek, besides Barkerville, dignified 
by the name of a town, and consisting of the court- 
house or government building, a saw-mill, and a dozen 
other buildings. 

In 1865 the government granted $2,500 for an ex- 
pedition to prospect the Bear Biver country, and to 
the north-east of William Creek, but seven weeks' 
search failed to develop anything of value, and the con- 
clusion was formed that further prospecting must be 
directed to the north-west. Among the prospecting 
movements, therefore, which in 1867 were made from 
V/illiam Creek in search of new fields, several took 
the direction of William Biver. On this route lay 
Mosquito Creek, five miles below Barkerville, which 
had been prospected in 1863-4, and had now six com- 
joanies at work. Their receipts for the season were 
$1,000 and upward, the Minnehaha and Becking yield- 
ing from twenty-five to fifty ounces per week. In 
1868, the Minnehaha returned three hundred and 
twenty-four ounces to one pick in a week.^^ To the 
north-west lay Sugar Creek, where the coarse, well- 
washed gravel deposits lying on a hard blue slate were 
found to yield fairly. Four miles beyond this, Ur- 
quhart and party named Mustang Creek, and took up 
a discovery claim, which, in September 1867, yielded 

■ ^®The Forest Rose, in 1871, produced in a week, during Langevin's visit, 
203 ounces, and in another week 245 ounces. Langevins Bept. Pub. Works, 
1871, 7. 

^^ Harnett's Lectures, 1867, 24; Victoria Weekly Colonist, Sept. 3, 1867. and 
March 31, 18G8; Cariboo ISentinel, Aug. 19, Oct. 14, 1865. 



THE BALD MOUNTAIXS. 505 

from eight to ten dollars a clay to the man.^^ The 
report hereof attracted more miners, and fine gold was 
found upon all the bars of Willow River, which ran 
longitudinally through the rich rocks of the Bald 
^Mountain zone ; one company sank a shaft in search 
of the deep gravels, but after descending some fifty 
feet, with alternate drifting along a pitching bed-rock, 
the water comj^elled them to abandon the work. Good 
prospects were found, however, and efforts were made 
to form a company with more funds, wherewith to 
prosecute the search for the deep deposits; but the 
miners failed to respond.-^ 

In the region east of the Bald Mountains were 
several other less prominent creeks and gulches, as 
McArthur, Steven, Begg, Whipsaw, and Pate, mined 
in 1875-7,'^ besides considerable rivers which remained 
undeveloped on account of their remote situation. 
In the list might be included the disrofino^s on Clear- 
water, and the upper north Thompson, referred to 
in a preceding chapter,^^ and rediscovered by the 
packers of Selwyn's Bocky Mountain geological ex- 
ploring party.-* The position of the latter region 
upon the map indicates an area of still wholly un- 

2" Cariboo Sentinel, Sept. 5, 1867. It was also called Beaver Creek on ac- 
count of the numerous beavers. The gravel-deposits, at times only eight feet 
deep, and Ij'ing upon a hard blue slate, resembled those of .Sugar Creek, with 
an abundance of water. Cariboo Sentinel, quoted in Victoria Colonist, Sept. 
23, 18C7. 

■•'' Cariboo Seirtinel, Oct. 7, 1867. Subscriptions were made in 1868 to the 
extent of §0,000, where the matter rested. The intention was to sink shafts 
and then ilrift iintil the main deep channel was found. Victoria Daili/ Colonint, 
Jan. 7, 18(38. The scheme was revived in 1872, in the form of a proposition 
for a grant of mining ground, and in August 1872, resolutions were passed at 
Barker ville recommending tlie project, with the condition that bonds should 
be given by tiie company for the performance of certain work. Victoria Col- 
onist, Aug. 18, 1872. 

■•'^See tabular statement of claims, yield, and population, note 50, tliis 
chapter. 

^^ Mentioned by Gov. Douglas, as reported by the Indians in 1861, and 
located on his mining map. Brid-fh Columbia Papcr.^ iv. 54. The Orr pros- 
pecting expedition in ^lay 1865 ascended from Kamloop as far as the forks 
of the Clearwater, without finding anything of value. Cariboo Sentinel, Sept. 
30, 1865. 

'^* Donald McFee, an old Californian and Cariboo miner attached to Sel- 
wyn's party, reported 'big diggings' j^elding coarse gold fifty miles from 
Clearwater River, in the same range of mountains that strike through the Cari- 
boo mines. Cooneys lie-port, Sept. 23d, iu Victoria Daily Colonist, Oct. 8, 1871. 



503 MINING IN CAKIBOO. 

developed mining country in the Cariboo zone, twice 
the size of that hitherto occupied by the miners, not 
to mention the region within the Rocky Mountains 
proper. 

Crossing to the western slopes of the Cariboo Bald 
Mountains we find the principal mining district upon 
the Lightning and Swift River branches of Cotton- 
wood River, and the most important camps on Van 
Winkle and Lowhee creeks, with a history parallel to 
that of Antler and William creeks. The valley of 
Lightning Creek was explcred early in 1861 :y three 
prospectors, Bill Cuumngham, Jack Hume, and Jim 
Bell, who first descended to Jack of Clubs Creek, 
and thence struck southward over the forest-covered 
mountains. The hardships encountered in descending 
the steep banks of the creek evoked from Cunningham 
the expression, "Boys, this is lightning;" whereupon 
his companions jocosely accepted this as the name 
of the stream. ^^ After a rough journey they were 
obliged to fall back upon their base of supplies at 
Antler Creek, without discovering the riches which 
shortly afterward placed Lightning Creek among the 
famous localities of Cariboo. 

In July 1861 Ned Campbell and his companions 
opened a rich claim several hundred yards above the 
site of the town of Van Winkle, known as the second 
canon, from which they took out seventeen hundred 
ounces in three days' washing."'' A great rush followed 

25 John Evans, in J/m. Mines Bepf., 1875, 10. This story Evans, the 
mining surveyor of Lightning Creek, doubtless obtained from the explorers 
themselves. Taliesin Evans varies the account by attributing the remark to 
the occurrence of one of the terrific thunder-storms common at certain seasons 
in the Cariboo Mountains. T. Evans, in Overland Montldy, March 1870, 262. 

■■'''Ball, the assistant gold commissioner, reported that Ned Campbell's 
claim yielded 900 ounces one day, 500 ounces on another, and 300 ounces on 
a third day. Doufjlas' Despatch, Oct. 24, ISGl, in B. C. Papers, iv. Gl. The 
opening of Campbell's claim cost $25,000, but it yielded $100,000 in three 
months. Browns Essay, 31. The discovery was on the later Spruce Com- 
pany's ground, covering Ned Campbell's and the Whitehall claim adjoining 
him, wliich yielded $200,000 together. Overland Mont/di/, JSIarch 1870, 2G2. 
It vras reported that Ned Campb Jl and his friends took out two ounces to 
the panful, and washed out $1,100 in a day, almost as soon as they com- 
menced to work. HazUtt's Cariboo, 125. 



LAST CHANCE AND LIGHTNING. 507 

this discovery, particularly to Van Winkle Creek, 
where 2,000 feet at the lower end yielded from Si 00 
to $250 a day to the man, through the season. Up 
the creek the lead disappeared. The total product 
of this stream in October 1876 was $500,904 from 
1,000 feet of ground running Avith the creek, and 
varying from 200 to 300 feet in width. 

The diggings on Last Chance Creek, another trib- 
utary of Lightning Creek, near Van Winkle, were 
likewise opened in 1801. The Discovery Company, 
consisting of four men, took out forty pounds of gold 
in one day, and the yield that season, from half a 
mile of the creek, was at least $250,000. The Chis- 
holm, Davis, and Anderson tributaries, near the same 
place, yielded also quite a quantity of gold from their 
shallow parts. "^ The second season on Lightning 
Creek yielded comparatively little, for the gravel, 
being loose and porous, was difficult to work, though 
the pay deposit w^as only from eight to thirty feet 
below the surface.""^ 

From Eagle Creek to the AYater Lily claim every 
foot of ground was occupied, and shafts were sunk in 
many places; but they all proved unsuccessful owing 
to the inefficiency of the draining machinery, and after 
two more seasons of disastrous trial, in the autumn of 
1804 they were all abandoned. In 1870, the Spruce, 
then called the Davis, as well as the Ross, Lightning, 
Van Winkle, Vancouver, and Victoria companies re- 
sumed work by sinkhig shafts into the deep channel, 
and with the aid of improved machinery and methods 
the water was controlled. The last three companies, 
situated below the town of Van Winkle, effected their 
object by sinking through the bed-rock at the side of 
the creek, and thence drifting into the channel At 
the same time a costly 'bed-rock drain' was opened 
at the lower end of the diggings. The developments 
made undergronnd at different times proved the ex- 

'■' Dawson on Mines, 7; John Emm, in Min. Mines RepL, 1S75, 10. 
-^ Brown'd E^nat/, 3L 



508 MINING IN CAPaBOO. 

istence of separate old channels at different eleva- 
tions, consequently of different ages.^^ 

As a result of this successful engineering feat fresh 
localities were opened for a distance of five miles along 
the creek, and gold began to flow again to some 
extent, the total yield of thirteen claims amounting 
in November 1875 to $2,179,272, of which the Vic- 
toria produced $451,642, the Van Winkle $303,983, 
and the Vancouver $274,190.^° But this showing was 
by no means so satisfactory as it seemed, for it embraced 
only the successful companies, and did not point out the 
expenses, which were very large, amounting in many 
claims to from $40,000 to $70,000.'' 

Quite a number of fortunes were paid out, in fact, 
on inefficient machinery, and in battling with excess- 
ive difficulties of ground and water to reach the rich 
strata from which a few were clrawino- laro-e returns, 
while others were doomed to comparative disappoint- 
ment. Both the expenditure and the yield served, 
however, to resuscitate the district, and by 1875 the 
diggings and towns on Lightning Creek, Van Winkle, 
and Stanley had taken the first place in Cariboo for 
production, prosperity, and population, while William 

29 The Butcher and Discovery claims were on a bench at a considerable 
height above tlie jjresent channel, o]jposite the South Wales claim, working 
below it. Similarly the Dunliar and El Dorado deposits were on a high bench 
of the bed-rock opposite the Perseverance and Ross claims, working the deep 
channel. 

^° In nine months the Van Winkle, Victoria, and Vancouver mines alone 
yielded about §500,000, of which $218,262, came from the Van Winkle. The 
whole of William Creek during the same time produced only $68,000, a third 
of which was extracted at Conklin Gulch. The total amounts yielded by 
the thirteen leading claims from the renewal of mining operations to Novem- 
ber I, 1875, were approximately as follows: Dutch and Siegel mines, now the 
Preseverance claim, $130,000; Dunbar, $30,000; Discovery and Butcher, 
$120,000; Campbell and Whitehall, $200,000; South Wales, $141,531; Lieht- 
ning, $153,962; Point, $136,625; Spruce, $99,908; Costello, $20,476; Vulcan, 
$56,955; Vancouver, $274,190; Victoria, $451,642; Van Winkle, $363,983; 
total, $2,179,272. Min. Mines BepL, 1875, 11. In 1871 the South Wales Com- 



j)any produced during the last three weeks of Aug. 3j!8, 215, and 256^unce3 

3ld respe 
1872 a number of claims on Lightning Creek continued to yield handsomely. 



of gold respectively. Lawjevhis Reft. Pub. Works Deft., 1872, 7. During 



D. Echtem, U. S. Consul, in Commercial Eel, 1872, 495. 

'^^ One third of the money would have been enough in most cases had the 
companies possessed machinery of sufficient capacity at the commencement, 
but they were mostly poor, coping with enormous difficulties in their struggle 
for existence. John Evaiis, in Min. Mines Reft, 1875, 11. 



LOWHEE CREEK. 509- 

Creek, with its principal town of Barkerville, had fallen 
into decay. The southern branch of Cottonwood River 
had also a rich district on Lowhee Creek, one of its 
head-waters, which at one time promised to rival Wil- 
liam Creek. Among its first locators was Richard 
Willoughby, an Englishman, who from July to Sep- 
tember 18G1 worked a claim having a blue slate bed- 
rock within four feet of the surface, and obtained as 
much as 84 ounces in one day, the latter yield being 
$1,000 a week. The Jordan and Abbott claims were at 
about the same time producing 80, 90, and 100 ounces 
daily,^' and Patterson with his brother took out $10,- 
000 in five weeks, one day yielding 73 ounces, partly 
in nuggets up to ten ounces in weight. Notwith- 
standing these and other good yields, the creek did not 
attract the attention that might have been expected, 
partly owing to the rich discoveries elsewhere, and 
their greater accessibility to travel. The develop- 
ments of 18G3-4 excited a little more interest when 
the Sage-Miller claim, for instance, yielded for a con- 
siderable time at the rate of 300 and 400 ounces a 
day. After being worked profitably for nearly two 
seasons, it still continued to yield 80 ounces daily. ^^ 

The deposits were evidently not of even value, for 
the mining population, which was never very large, 
fel] ofi" gradually' after this season, and little eftbrt was 
made to bring in water for sluicing purposes. The 
Yaughan-Sweeney ditch, carrying one hundred and 
eighty inches from Stony Gulch, partially supplied this 
want in the autumn of 1865, but the following season 
did not prove sufficiently remunerative, and in 1867 
most of the claims were allowed to fall into the hands 
of the Chinese, whose earnings could never be ascer- 
tained.^^ Canon Creek, a small tributary on the left 

^^ Patterson found 195 ounces, the result of a clay's work by four men. Hnz- 
lilt's Cariboo, 124-5; Douqlas De.^patdi, Sept. 16, 1861, in B. C. Papers, iv, 58. 

^'^Mncfies V. I. and B. C, 249. 

^*The Calaveras Company in August 1867 washed out 100 ounces in 4 
days. Another ol)taine<l 55 ounces in a week. Cariboo Sentinel, Sept. 3, 1867. 
There was in 1866 a population of 56 white men and 21 Chinese on the creek. 
New Westminster Herald, July 24, 1866. 



510 MINING IN CARIBOO. 

bank of the Fraser, midway between the mouth of 
the Quesnel and Fort George, formed the extreme 
north-western hmit of the Cariboo region. Prospec- 
tors were probably acquainted with the creek at an 
early date, but the first reports of diggings were made 
in 1865.^^ The following season Hixon's party of 
five men ascended it for twenty-six miles to a small 
tributary which was named after the leader. Obtain- 
ing good prospects, they formed two companies and 
brought in ditches to work ground which yielded 
from forty to sixty-five cents to the pan.^^ 

In 1867 the whites abandoned the main creek to 
the Chinese, and occupied Fery Creek tributary, 
where the shallow diggings yielded from six to eight 
dollars a day.^^ Canon Creek tributaries were still 
occupied in 1875, and worked with the aid of ditches.^"^ 
Although the yield was unimportant, the stream 
excited some interest by the indication it gave of 
strata formations different from those of central Cari- 
boo, as exemplified by false bed-rocks. ^^ Of still 
greater interest was the discovery by Hixon's party, 
in 1866, of gold quartz, which was soon found to 

^^ The approach to the Canon Creek appears to have been made by way 
of Willow River, as the diggings when first reported were described to be ' ten 
miles from Beaver Pass/ Ten men were on the gro.und in 1865. Canhoo 
Sentivel, quoted in Victoria Weekly Colonist, July 4, 1865. 

'■^^ Finding good ground, they at first worked the banks of Hixon Creek 
while the water was high. The richness of the placers discovered was suffi- 
cient to enable the owners of claims to pay wages of $10 a day. The placer- 
mining operations began by finding prospects of $1 and $1.25 to the pan. In 
a place 2h, feet by 10 feet $76 was taken out in one day. Septs, of Wahlron 
and Hixon, in Victoria Colonist, July 3, 31, 1866. 

^^ The main creek was occupied by 150 Chinese. Cariboo Sentinel and the 
Victoria Colonist, July 23, 1867. 

^* Russian Creek does not appear upon the record till 1875. It is described 
as located nine miles north of Beaver Pass. A prospect was obtained there 
in the autumn of 1874 which was deemed sufficiently good to justify bringing 
ill a ditch, which was duly completed ready for the hydraulic machinery. 
Cariboo Sentinel, March 27, 1875. 

^^ On all of the lower part of Hixon Creek, including the Blue Lead Com- 
pany's ground, and half a mile beyond to the Go-ahead Company's ground, 
the ' bed-rock ' was a ' soft sandstone, ' supposed to have gravel under it. Vic- 
toria Colonist, July 31, 1866. On Fery Creek there was also a ' false bed- 
rock,' described as a kind of lava. The miners never penetrated through 
these sedimentary strata, but contented themselves with cleaning up the 
' scraggly ' gold of local origin which the creeks had concentrated upon their 
surfaces. Id., July 23, 1867. 



THE SHORT SEASONS. 511 

extend on all sides, some of it in apparently well- 
defined ledges so as to justify a systematic develop- 
ment thereof *° 

Among the elements which governed mining events 
in the Cariboo region were the comparative inaccessi- 
bility of the diggings, and the shortness of the open 
season, alternating with the ' close season,' the severe 
winter ; but it has been seen that wherever a sufficient 
drainage could be provided by bed-rock drains, or by 
means of sufficiently powerful pumping machinery, 
the conditions of the country permitted underground 
work, and to this the severity of the climate proved 
no obstacle. So rich were the concentrations on the 
bed-rock of the old channels, that drifting for them 
was indeed profitable to a degree probably never 
equalled in any other gold-mining country. They lay 
in heaps at the angles, and in crevices and pockets, on 
the bed-rock of the buried streams; but in the smaller 
streams particularly the leads were subject to abrupt 
changes in level and direction that baffled the most 
experienced. This inequality of distribution, caused 
partly by glaciers and slides, was in many cases more 
apparent than real,''^ however, tlie difficulty calling 
simply for systematic working and a sufficient expen- 
diture of money. A layer of clay everywhere cover- 
ing the deep channels protected the subfluvial drifts 
along the old beds, from what would otherwise have 
amounted to an extraordinary and ruinous influx of 

*"Iii 1S66 about $500 worth of coarse Cauon Creek gold, which had been 
little subjected to the action of water, was exhibited at the Bank of Briti-h 
Columbia in Victoria. It was obtained from a streak three feet below t!ie 
surface and was mixed with frarjineuts of quartz. Victoria Coloii/.<i, ^May 29, 
1SG6. The quartz ledges for which the creek afterwards became noted were 
discovered by Hixon's party three miles below their diggings. Report of Hlxon 
to Jmlije Spal'lin;/, in Victoria Wecll;/ Colonist, July 3, ISG^i. 

*' If tlie streams had run in exactly the same channels as they did when 
the gold came down, the matter would have been simple enough, but great 
changes had taken place since then. The changes here referred to were due 
partly to the slides which had changed the position of the stream-beds, but 
they were more commonly, perhaps, the result of glaciers occupying the 
canons after the ol 1 concentrations had been deposited. Milton and Chaullcs 
Northw<ist Passaje Irj Land, 3GS. 



512 MIJ^ING IX CARIBOO. 

water, and rendered underground placer-raining alto- 
gether impracticable. On William Creek, and nearly- 
everywhere in Cariboo, the pay strata consisted of blue 
clay, with various admixtures.'*'' 

In connection with the difficulties mentioned came 
this, that the rich deposits were, as a rule, from twelve 
to one hundred feet beneath the surface, under the 
beds or banks of streams, frequentlv running through 
swamps and lakes, and on the beds of former lakes. 
Such a state of things could not fail to render the field 
unattractive to individual adventurers, since prospect- 
ing without abundant resources became unprofitable.^^ 

These gravel-deposits on the hills gave rise to the 
reiterated hopes of developments like those of the old 
river hill-gravels of California, but they often proved 
vain," because the altitude of the gravel-layers was not 
the same. In some instances, as on William Creek, there 
were two distinct leads with different qualities of gold, 

*2 On sinking a shaft through the alluvial deposits of tlie stream-beds of 
Cariboo, the miner comes to a clay stratum which is sometimes as much 
as 3 feet in thickness. 'This stratum of clay was a great benefit to the 
miners, being a protection against water.' Under the clay was the older allu- 
vial deposit varying from 6 inches to 18 feet in thickness, in which lay the 
gold. Fery's Gold Searches, MS., 2, 3. The pay dii't on William Creek was 
generally from 3 to 5 feet in thickness, and was worked out in low galleries. 
Milton and Cheadle's NortJnoest Passage Iry Land, 373. In the Steele claim on 
William Creek it was 6 feet thick, and consisted of a blue clay mixed with de- 
composed slate and gravel. Douglas, in Rawllngs' Confederation, 118. The gold 
in Cariboo was found ' in the bluish clay which is on and in the slaty bottom 
sometimes as far as a foot deep; streaks of yellowish clay are also found, which 
are sometimes very rich.' Broivn's Essaij, 29. On William Creek it M^as 
' scattered through hard blue clay in pieces weighing from 50 cents to $5. ' 
It cost about $4,000 in 1832 to sink a shaft to the bed-rock, less than 100 feet. 
Courtney s Min. B. C, MS., 6. 

*^ Much faith was entertained among the miners in the richness of the deep 
ground on Willow River, Jack of Clubs, Antler, Cunningham, and other 
favorably situated creeks; and claims that were well opened in many instances 
paid steadily as much as §500 a day to the man. The Nason Company, on 
the other hand, expended $30,000 to test the deep ground on Antler Creek 
uj) to 1875 without success. John Bov:ron, in Min. Mines Re'pt., 1875, 12. 

■•^The great problem of finding gold in the hills was solved this year, 
wrote 'B. I).,' Barkerville cor., Oct. 23d, in Victoria Weelhj Colo»i--'t, Nov. 7, 
1805. Another writer more definitely expressed his belief that hill-diggings 
would be found along a supposed ancient stream running from the Bald 
^Mountains across the head of McCallum Gulch through the hill on tlie east 
side of William Creek, thence to the middle or upper portion of Conklin 
Gulch, behind the line of the United and Aurora claims, and on to the Forest 
Rose and Prairie Flower claims at the ^leadows, formerly a lake, or one of a 
series of large lakes. Harnett's Lectures, 16, 17. 



PRODUCT. 513 

below the level of the present stream/^ and it was 
observed in most niinino- operations upon the gold- 
bearing creeks of Cariboo that the paying ground 
was usually limited to an area of a mile and a 
half to two miles along the centre of their course, 
or within that area^ at least tlie principal mining was 
done, unlike that of the gold-bearing streams of Cali- 
fornia, which paid throughout from source to mouth/^ 
The rocks of the Bald Mountains, consisting of 
metamorphic clay slate traversed by broad bands 
impregnated with auriferous quartz, were indeed only 
a sample of numerous other zones in tlie slaty gold- 
bearing rocks of the northern plateau, to be brought 
into prominence as soon as the progress of develop- 
ments would permit"*' — developments which during the 
two decades commencing with the discovery of gold in 
British Columbia were retarded chiefly by the great 
cost of supplies and transportation. 

Among those who went to Cariboo in 1861, one 
third, according to Macfie's estimate, made indepen- 
dent fortunes, another third netted several hundred 
pounds sterling, and the remaining th.ird returned 
from the mines wholly unsuccessful.*^ All who were 

*^ The one contained gold alloyed with a good deal of silver, the other gold 
of a higher color and much purer — both battered and worn to such a degree 
as to imply transportation for some distance. The gold of Lowhee Creek 
was less worn than tliat of AVilliani Creek; that of Liglitniug Cieck was more 
so, and found in smaller jjarticles. Milton and Cheadles Nort/nrcsi Pa.isnffe by 
Land, 3i37-8. A table of assays of gold from different portions of Cariboo, 
made by Agrell at Portland, Oregon, in 18(31, showed the average to be %\6 
to the ounce. JIazlitt's Cariboo, 138. The gold from the several creeks of Cari- 
boo differed, however, l)oth in appearance and value. On William Creek it 
was smooth, water-worn, and largely alloyed with silver. On Lowhee Creek, 
five miles distant, the golden particles had a more crystalline structure, were 
exceedingly pure, and worth §2 an ounce more than on William Creek. Lieut. 
Palmer, in Lond. Geofj. Soc, Jour., xxxiv, 191. 

^•^Tliis 'singular and reliable fact' was attributed to glacial action by the 
local observers, some of whom supposeil that the old deep channels wera 
eroded by the action of ice. There was no regular stratification of the gravel 
as in California. The clay of the bottom varied from light blue to very dark. 
Allan'x Carihon, M.S., 9. 

*' Murchison, Forbes, Hector, Bauerman, Selwyn, and Dawson have writ- 
ten more or less about the position of these rocks in connection with their 
gold-bearing character. 

''Macfu's V. /. and B. C, 74-5. 
Hist. Brit. Col. S3 



514 illNIXG IN CARIBOO. 

interrogated by Governor Douglas in October 18G1, 
in regard to the amount of their carnnigs, mentioned 
$2,000 as the lowest, while many had made $10,000 
in the course of the summer. Rose and McDonald, 
the first discoverers, both declared that in their opinion 
the new diggings were at least as rich, and probably 
richer, than those of California or Australia; and 
Major Downie, of Downieville, California, went so 
far as to say that there was nothing in California to 
be compared to William Creek; while Lieutenant 
Palmer quoted experienced Californian and Australian 
miners to the effect that on William Creek more gold 
had been extracted from an area of three miles than 
from a corresponding space in any other country/^ 

General statistics sliow that in twenty years a total 
product of between $30,000,000 and $40,000,000 was 
obtained from half a dozen principal creeks within 
a region of rotten shale less than fifty miles square ; 
and the average population for the same period was 
probably about 1,500.'^ 

^^ Lkutenant Palmer, in Lond. Geog. Soc, Jour., xxxiv. 190; Douglas' Pri- 
vate Papers, MS., i. 146. Judge Begbie, writing from Quesuel forks under 
date of Sept. 25, 1861, said, in regard to the quantity of gold-dust in the 
hands of the miners: ' I have no doubt that there is little short of a ton Ij-iiig 
at the different creeks. I hear that Aljbott's and Steele's claims (William 
Creek) are working better tlian ever — 30 to 40 pounds a day each. They reckon 
rich claims as often by pounds as ounces now; it must be a poor clai'.n that 
is measured by dollars. . .The gold is a perfect nuisance, as they have to carry 
it to their claims every morning, and watch it while they work, and carry it 
back again — sometimes as much as two men can lift — to their cabins at night, 
and watch it while they sleep. ' B. C. Papers, iv. 60. The detailed statements 
of rich yields from individual claims, which have been quoted in the present 
chapter, could be multiplied indefinitely, and in mo:;t instances verified 
beyond question. Jules Fery, one of the miners, informed the writer that in 
the month of September or October 18G1 he saw taken out of one claim 1C4 
lbs. of gold, the result of twenty hours' work. Ferijs Gold Searches, MS., 2. 

*° The population of Cariboo in July 1861 was estimated bj^ Governor Doug- 
las at 1,500. British Columbia Papers, iv. 63. That was the figure accepted 
by the London Times' correspondent with independent sources of information. 
It was at least doubled and probably quadrupled during the next few years. 
U. S. Consul Frances in 1862 estiinated the total numbers in the country, in- 
cluding Cariboo, at 15,000, while Mr Fery guessed at 20,000, both exaggerated 
figures. In 1865, 1 find the Colonist gives the total of Cariljoo miners at 1,385, 
of which 1,000 were on William Creek, 68 on Lowhee, 00 on Burns, 15 on Cun- 
ningham, 30 on Antler and Stevens, 100 on Lightning, and 120 more on other 
creeks. Victoria Weelly Colonist, Oct. 31, 1865. The records of the minister 
of mines showed the total popi^lation of Cariboo, including children, females, 
and Chinese, to have been, in 1875, 1,305, in 1876, 1,292, and in 1877, 1,391. 



COST OF surrLiES. 



515 



After 18G1 the facilities for transportation were 
greatly improved. In the winter of 18G1-2 freight 
by dog-sleds between Alexandria and Antler alone 
was 30 cents a pound, and flour sold at Quesnel forks 
for $72 a barrel, beans 45 cents, and bacon 68 cents, 
a pound. On the completion of the branch wagon- 
road in 18G5, freight from Yale to William Creek was 
reduced to 7 and 12 cents a pound, according to the 

The winter population in 1864-5 was between 400 and 500 on William, and 
f.-om 30 to 40 on Lowhee Creek. LL, Jan. 10, ISGo. About 1,000 persons 
wintered in and about Cariboo in 18GC-7. 2Iiniiig and Scientific Press, Jan. 
12, 18j7. The gold product of Cariboo in 1861 was estimated by the Victoria 
Daibj Press at 82, 003,000, and by the London Times correspondent at $2,291,- 
409. The latter figure was obtained by estimating that there were 400 claim 
owners who cleared 8600,000; 79 miners who cleared $926,680; and 1,021 
laborers at $7 a day, whose share was $764,729; total, $2,291,409. In 1871, 
La.ngevin, the Canadian minister of public works, placed the total yield of 
Cariboo at $1,047,245. Reiit. Pub. Works, 1872-7. After 1875 the statistical 
reports published by the minister of mines furnished authentic figures which 
sliowcd a considerable reduction; for 1875, $766,248, of which $500,000 came 
from Lightning Creek; for 1876, $443,843, showing a falling off, cliiefly in 
Lightning Creek; and for 1877, $404,772. The following summary is com- 
piled from the talmlar sheets accompanying the reports of 1875-7, giving the 
product of each creek: 

MINES IN THE CARIBOO DISTRICT. 



Lightning. 

Burns 

Nelson 



Cottonwood. . . . 

SwiltK 

V. illiam 

Conklin Gulch. 
Stout.s Gulch... 
Gron.se Creek. . 
VarioTis Creeks — as 

Lowhee, Jack I 

Jiosquito, 

Antler. 

N. and S. Forks Quesnel. 

Keit'.iley Creek 

liarvey, Snowshoe, etc. . 



.'reeks — as ") 
Jack of Clubs, I 
3, McArthur, [ 



n 

3 I: 



$513,527 
10,9S0 
9,750 



5 000 „ 

8,300 
68,760 27 
41,200: 4 

4,200i 4 

4,414 



40,040 
25,515 
13,162 



i^766,258 



^ O 



202 172 $137,306 
(b) 



134 208 

(d) 



$222,017 



$404,772 



(a) Including also Cunningham, Stevens, Beggs, and Whip Saw creeks. 

(b) Including Coulters, Dragon, Rocham, Davis, Peters Canon, and Dead wood 
creeks. 

(c) Including Pate Creek. 

(d) Including Perkins Gulch, Last Chance, Anderson, Chisholm, Davis, Coulter, 
and Canon creeks. 



516 MINmO IX CARIBOO 

season, and prices in Cariboo became henceforth not 
only more moderate, but were better regulated, while 
capital and labor stood comparatively secure. ^^ Of 
the men who explored, mined, traded, and lived in 
the Cariboo region during the period described, two 
thirds were British subjects, according to Douglas' 
estimates for 1863-6, but the rest were as cosmopolitan 
in mixture as the early influx to California.^^ 

Fortunes and misfortunes commingled made these 
people generous and hospitable in a high degree, 
always ready to share with an impecunious friend or 
stranger, while as a mass they were probably the 
reckless and ungodly creatures that the Reverend 
Mr Brown depicts them/^ The old and well-known 
classic and time-honored traits of the animal man 
came to the surface once more, developing characters 
that fitted into the remote and isolated forest and lake 
country of the far northern Cordilleras. "I know of 
no place in the world," says a witness, "where more wit 
is required, or where a larger amount of small cunning 
is the sine qua non for getting on in life, than in Cari- 
boo." Without $500 to buy into a good claim, and 
without the necessary judgment to buy shrewdly, a 
man had a hard battle to avoid ruin."'* Winter life 
had its noteworthy features. During the first few 

^^ In November 18G4 wages at Barkerville were §10 a day; flour was 32 
cents a pound, bacon 50 cents, potatoes 20 cents. Macfie's V. I. and B, C, 
252. These prices were rarely approached after the completion of the wagon- 
road. In the spring of 1865 the introduction of the new freight tariff looking 
to the completion of the wagon-road was made the occasion for a ' corner ' in 
flour, cigars, sugar, champagne, etc. , every purchasable article of which was 
bought in from the small dealers. The Hudson's Bay Company in tlie 
person of Mr Finlayson made arrangements in 1867 for opening stores at 
Quesuelmouth and Barkerville. New Westminster Examiner, June 5, 1867; 
Hazlitis Cariboo, 115. 

^'^ Private Papers, MS., i. 152. The following list of shareholders of the 
Ericsson Company, on William Creek, though not altogether an index of the 
prevailing nationality, will so/ve to show the varied origin of the community: 
John Nelson, foreman, Norway; John Taggart, Ireland; Alex. Ericsson, 
Sweden; Peter Ericsson, Sweden; Alex. McKenzie, Scotland; Ephraim Harper, 
Canada; E. B. Hilt, Canada; David Grier, Wales; Evan Davis, W^ales; John 
Perrin, United States; Samuel Thompson, Norway; Peter Peterson, Denmark; 
W. J. Miller, United States; Charles Taft, United States; M. Smith, United 
States. 

^^ Fijth Kept. Col. Miss., 1863, 6; Courtney's Min., B. C, MS., 11. 

^^ Poole's queen Charlotte Island, London, 1872, 98. The ups and downs 



MINING Li^.WS. 517 

years of mining, in 18G1 and 1862, underground 
working had not yet begun, and as it was too cold to 
work ill the mountain creeks, many of the miners wiio 
retained their cabins on the Fraser retired thither to 
work the bars during the low water of winter, while 
others who had money made it a rule to spend the 
season in Victoria or San Francisco, often in reckless 
debauchery. ^^ 

Falling into the custom of the countr}^, originally 
from necessity, the mining laws provided for the 
'lajdng over' of all claims during the inclement season, 
under which arrangement miners were permitted to 
absent themselves without losiiio- their title. Althousrh 
work underground soon became a common winter 
occupation,^^ yet one third or one half of the popu- 
lation continued to leave for the winter; freio;hting 

of life, the glories of success, and the power and iudispensability of gold are 
aptly depicted in tha following verse: 

I kent a body make a strike — 

lie looked a little lord! 
An' had a clan o' followers 

Amang a needy horde. 
Whane'er he'd enter a saloon 

You'd see the barkeep smile — 
His lordship's humble servant he 

Without a thocht o' guile! 

A twal' months past an' a' is gane, 

Baith freends an' brandy-bottle; 
An' noo the puir soul's left alaue 

Wi' nocht to weet his throttle ! 

Jeames' Letter to Sawnie in Fife. James Anderson, William Creek, 1S68. 

^^ A Cariboo man, having made $80,000 or $40,000 in tlie season of 1862, 
went to Victoria to enjoy himself. At a saloon he treated all he coidd find to 
all the champagne he could make them drink. The champagne held out long- 
est, all of the coin})any gathered from within and from without being unable 
to consume the barkeeper's stock. Our man then ordered every glass remaining 
in the establishment to be tilled, and with one grand sweep of his cane sent 
them spinning of! the counter. Still the champagne held out. To win his vic- 
tory over the last hamper he jumped upon it, cutting his shins. Having still 
a handful of gold pieces with Inm, he walked up to a large mirror worth several 
hundred dollars adorning one end of the room, and to prove that gold was sov- 
ereign of all things, he dashed a shower of liis heavy pieces into the face of 
his own image, shivering it to fragments. The next year he was working as 
a laborer. Milton awl. C/ieadle, Nortlnvest Pass(i;/e hy Land, 370. Three others 
with ' an enormous luggage of gold ' received on their arrival at San Francisco, 
in 18G3, special notice from the newspapers. Tiiey were Fraser River miners 
of 1858. From Hill Bar they had gone to William Creek to work unsuccess- 
fully for seventeen months; but finally they took out .^'250,000 in two months, 
and their claim was still good for $100 a day to the share. *S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 
9, 1863; Fer)fs Gold Searches, j\IS., 3. 

'"'The following companies on William Creek worked throughout the 
winter of 1866-7, with good success; the Caledonia, Last Chance, Cameron, 



5iS MINING m CARIBOO. 

ceased; the mails were periodically interrupted by 
snows, and even the newspaper hibernated till spring."^' 

The remainder set about to make themselves com- 
fortable for the season, and their snugly thatched 
and mud-plastered log-cabins, with large cheerful fire- 
places, aided to impart to winter life in Cariboo a social 
and hospitable cast, not equally developed in more 
southern latitudes.^^ With sociability came a peaceful 
intercourse which became more and more manifest by 
the gradual disuse of carrying weapons, which had 
been the custom, on the road at least, in early days.^'^ 

Gambling followed as usual in the wake of the 
diggers, and piles of gold might be seen changing 
hands over green tables to the strain of merry music, 
particularly at such places as Antler and William 
creeks. A check was early placed on this vice, but it 
continued, nevertheless, to flourish in private.^*^ 

Prince of Wales, Rangoon, Wide West, Henrietta, and Forward, Well Mary 
Ann, Brouse, Dutch Bill, Beale, Steadman, and Six-toed Pete. The Forest 
Rose was worked during the greater part of the winter with a rocker, and 
declared a dividend, after paying the wages of 11 men, of $140 to the share. 
Cariboo Sentinel, May 6, 1807. 

'•''' The Sentinel smnovinced Oct. 28, 1867, that the mining season was about 
to close, although a few companies were still at work under the drawbacks 
of frosty weather, and that the publication of the paper would accordingly 
be suspended until spring. 

''*' Many were the ' yarns ' evoked by the wild surroundings and the danc- 
ing flames. On a lonely mountain trail near Barkerville, in 1865, an inexpli- 
cable tramping down of the snow was observed by the passers-by from time 
to time. No one had ever seen or been able to trace in these phenomena any 
connection or agency of flesh and blood; but near the spot lay a short log, 
and the snow had no sooner obliterated the signs than human footsteps re- 
appeared, and the log was found in a different position. An investigation 
was finally held, and disclosed the simple fact that the tramping was produced 
by an eccentric clergyman, in quest of exercise. This discovery spoiled a 
congenial mystery. Victoria Weelii/ Colonist, Ma-Tch 21, ISCo. The Minnehaha 
claim on Mosquito Gulch, William Creek, gained the notoriety in 1S67 of be- 
ing haunted by a ghost. Long, weary, and costly delvings by the plucky 
individuals of the company had failed to develop anything. At last they 
struck the lead, taking out eiglit ounces of gold from the bottom of their shaft, 
and the ghostly incidents were forgotten. Cariboo Sentinel, Sept. 3, 1SG7. 

°^ In tlie mines proj^er, nobody went armed, even in the early days. The 
custom of carrying weapons fell into disuse with the disappearance of ' the 
chink of money and the sound of gamblers' A'oices ' in public places. Fery's 
Gold Searches, MS., 1, 2. 

''^ As late as 1868, our Barkerville poet made mention of the fact that — 

Amang the hunders livin' here, 

'i here's barely ten per cent 
That nhun the vice o' cards an' dice, 

Such is the natural bent. 

Jeames' Letter to Sawnie. 



MIXING SOCIETY. 519 

Missionaries did not fail to observe that miners were 
as much in need of their services as the natives, and 
as early as 18G1 clergymen began to visit Cariboo 
every summer, under the auspices of the Columbia 
mission of the Episcopal church. But the field proved 
unprofitable, since the miners contributed but lightly, 
and it was abandoned after a few years. ^^ One cause 
of the failures lay doubtless in the lack of good female 
influence. Not a single married woman lived in Cari- 
boo even as late as 18G7, and the sex was represented 
merely by a few single females, and some of them dis- 
reputable.^^ In the absence of so essential a comple- 
ment to respectable society, the less refined pleasures 
naturally predominated, and the time not devoted to 
gambling was often spent over the bottle at private 
carousal or at public dinners, and with the votaries of 
Terpsichore, gathered in the temples of the hurdy- 
gurdies, on whose lives hung many a whisper and 
many a romantic tale.^^ 

A relieving feature of Barkerville was the public 
reading-room, which in 1865 was already comforta- 
bly fitted up, and well patronized. Here also the tal- 
ented portion of the community enlivened the long- 
winter nights with public debates, recitations, plays, 
and musical performances for the amusement of them- 
selves and the rcst.*^* 

" The Rev. R. C. Lundin Brown lived for some time during 1S62-3 in a 
miner's caliin at Cameronton, William Creek, suffering great hardships. Find- 
ing the miners somewhat indifferent to religion, he attacked the gamblers in 
tlieir dens, but was ultimately obliged to withdraw from the field unsuccess- 
ful. Brown's E.-tmii, passim, and Ff^'tli liept. Col. 3Iidtiion, 1863, G-7. 
«■■' Tenth Kept. Col. Mission, 1808, 25-0. 

^ Bonnie are the hurdies ! 
The German hurdy-gurdies 0! 
The daftest hour that e'er I spent 
Was dancing wi' the hurdies 0! 

Jvamci Lttter to Sawuie. 

** A manuscript weekly newspaper conducted by McLaren and Anderson 
in 1SG6, and read on these occasions, gave great satisfaction, and afforded 
much amusement. Victoria Weekly Colonist, April 3, 1806. 



CHAPTEK XXYII. 

UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

1864^1882. 

Columbia River Deposits — Fine-gold Theory — Ancient River-beds — 
Early Diggings — Kootenai Excitement — Wild Horse Creek — 
Saskatchewan Expedition — Perry Creek — Hydraulics — Subordi- 
nate Districts, Forty-nine Creek, Mooyie River — Big Bend — 
Routes and Influx— French, McCulloch, and Carnes Creeks- 
Later Exploration — Extent of the Auriferous Region — Terrace 
Gravels — Rock Creek — Okanagan and Similkameen Districts. 

The little flurry of the fur-hunters round Colville 
over the sprinkling of gold along the aboriginal high- 
ways, so long familiar to them, in a measure passed 
away, or was absorbed by intenser interest elsewhere 
until 1864, when it finally became respectably epi- 
demic. 

Concerning this northern region, into which as by 
a divining-rod they had been led by their fine-gold 
theory, California's wise ones were somewhat puzzled. 
However true their speculations, which appeared, in- 
deed, to be founded on fact, they seemed here at the 
north to fail in their application. A partial knowl- 
edge of the facts had raised in the breast of thirty 
thousand hopes of sluicing fortunes out of the river- 
banks of these northern latitudes, destined to be real- 
ized only by a few of the more patient. 

For hero was to them an unknown and complex 
scattering;' of sfold-bearinof rocks, where the newer and 
older gravels had been redistributed by the ice agency 
of the drift period. Here were ancient river-beds 
under a false bed-rock of bowlder, clay, and ancient 

(520) 



COLVILLE MINES. 521 

river erosions deeper than the modern. Such ancient 
river gravels as were found were not capped in all 
cases or preserved by volcanic matter. If they were 
so preserved and tapped by modern streams, there 
was tlie drawback that the whole country was cov- 
ered by a mantle of drift, hiding the lead from the 
prospector. If found, it was not provided with an 
outlet grade into the modern canons; so that mining 
had to be done underground with the aid of pumps 
and hoisting machinery. The richer gold-bearing rocks 
were remote from the coast, beyond rugged mountains 
more difficult to overcome than the Sierra Nevada of 
California. It was not possible for the prospectors, 
under such conditions of tranisportation as existed in 
British Columbia from 1858 to 1868, to remain long 
in the mountains under heavy costs for their supplies. 
The search was checked from the necessities of the 
case ; yet the expectations which filled the country in 
1858 proved necessarily to those M'ho insisted on find- 
ing things otherwise than they were, an infatuation 
so stupendous that between Kern River and Gold 
Blufts there never had been its equal. 

Mention has been made of the finding of grains of 
gold on the bank of the Columbia at Colville in 1855, 
and of the prospecting expedition in the same season 
by Angus McDonald's men, finding moderately remu- 
nerative diggings at the mouth of the Pend d'Oreille, 
near the boundary line; also of the communication of 
Douglas to the colonial office in 185G announcing the 
working of diggings in the upper Columbia district 
yielding from ten to forty dollars a day to the man.^ 
During the Fraser River excitement in 1858-9, atten- 
tion was diverted from the upper Columbia, and for 
several years little was done there ; but the first flush 
over, developments above Colville on the Columbia and 

^See cliap. xx., this volume. 'This vicinity,' saj-s Ross Browne, 'has at- 
tracted much attention as a ''oUl-niining region since 1S5-4. ' Jlineral liaiource-^. 
1SG9, 55S. 



522 . UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

its tributaries have a history parallel to that of the 
Eraser, and after 1861 to that of Cariboo, which 
overshadows all but the Kootenai and Big Bend 
excitements.^ Some rich specimens of quartz were 
brought to Victoria in 1859 by members of the Brit- 
ish boundary commission from the head-quarters of 
Kootenai Biver. The placer gold in the basin of 
the upper Columbia was found on the bars and banks 
of the streams between latitude 49° and 51°, compris- 
ing, generally, shallow diggings not very rich, but 
extending over a large area. Miners having gradually 
worked up the valley of Kootenai Biver, rich dig- 
gings were at last discovered not far from the boun- 
dary line, which gave rise in 1863-4 to the Kootenai 
gold-mining excitement. Bemote from Victoria as 
v^as this portion of the country, its mining operations 
were better known in, and were in fact tributary to, 
Oregon; yet many Victorians went thither, and some 
trade was carried in that direction in later times, not- 
withstanding the inconveniences of the route. But the 
Kootenai excitement was much less felt at Victoria 
than was subsequently that of the Big Bend country.^ 
Wild Horse Creek, or, in the early vulgar, Stud 
Horse Creek, the centre of the Kootenai mining dis- 

2 On the discovery of the Eraser mines in 1858, all but a few of those who 
had been previously mining on the Columbia River bars transferred themselves 
into the valley of the Eraser, and the consequence was that developments in 
the Columbia basin were arrested for several years. Of what was done in 
this district between the Colville and Kootenai excitements the outside world 
heard little or nothing. Cariboo, as an extension of the Eraser excitement, 
made, upon all the loose population of the north-west, a second draft which 
was not to be resisted. ^Vashoe and Esmeralda alone at this time furnished 
field enough for all the spare population and capital that California could 
afford. 

^ The Kootenai mines were almost inaccessible, remote, and hidden in a 
romantic valley within the parallels of the Rocky Moimtains, 70 or 75 miles 
above the Tobacco plains. The other districts of the tipper Columbia, Okan- - 
agan, and Rock Creek, were also beset by unusual difficulties of communica- 
tion from the direction of the Eraser. All the streams and mountain ranges 
of the nothern plateau, the latter often forest-covered, had to be crossed in 
succession. Erom the lower Columbia they were more remote, and separated 
by a wall of no small magnitude the boundary line, for it was the settled 
IJolicy of the government at Victoria to block the way along this line as far 
as possible east of the Cascade Mountains, in order to keep the territory and 
its trade within the control of the political and commercial capital of the 
province. 



KOOTENAI DIGGINGS. 523 

trict, discovered in 18G3, and which in 18G4 became 
the site of an important camp, was a small tributary 
of the Kootenai Kiver coming from the main Rocky 
Mountain range, fifty miles north of the boundary hne. 
This name arose from the abundance of horses in the 
district. By May 1864, 400 miners had distributed 
themselves along the bars and canons of the creek, 
and more were on the way. Prospects were obtained 
there of $1 to the pan and of 25 cents to the shovel; 
nuggets were found in the gravel weighing from $2.50 
to $78, and ordinary claims were paying $20 to $30 
a day to the man.* The excitement grew, and in 
August, Hudson's Bay Factor McKay reported 5,000 
miners in the district, for whom provisions were being 
rushed in from the Dalles. This report was doubtless 
exaggerated, for in November it w^as asserted that 
only 800 to 900 remained, 500 of whom preferred to 
winter in the diggings,^ and trace the distribution of 
the gold-bearing rocks in the northern Bocky ]\Ioun- 
tain region.® 

Mining experience in the Kootenai country the 
first year developed the fact that sluicing could be 
carried on for nine months in the year. Hill tunnels 
were in progress during the winter where pay had 
been struck, and Birch, the colonial secretary, who vis- 
ited the region, reported very hopefully in regard to 
these hill deposits, one of which yielded dollar nug- 
gets and prospects of seventy-five cents to two dollars 
a pan. Several companies late in the season of 1864 
struck pay also on Toby Creek, and now Fisherville, 
the name given to the principal camp on the creek, 
began to figure in the chronicles, though the place was 

< Dawson on Mines, 38; B. C. Directory, 1SG3, 200; Browne's Min. Resources, 
652; Allan's Cariljoo, M8., 11, 12; Wulki Walla Statesman, Aug. 15, 22, 1803. 

* Kooteuai hatl almost depopulated the Boise country. A. E. Riddle's Letter 
to Ilill Beachy, Hrtona C'o/o«/.s/, June 28, Aug. ll>, 1804. 

*Two roada to the mines leading respectively from the Columbia and Fra- 
ser passes were constructed the same year, in consequence of the rush. The 
first was a wagon-road leading from Colville to Pend d'Oreille, from which 
point the Oregon approach was by a nuile -trail to Wild Horse Creek. The 
Huilson's Bay Company also opened a rough trail from Hope by way of Simii- 
kameen. Rock Creek, and Pend d'Oreille. 



624 UPPER COLUMBIA MIXES. 

more often referred to under the general name of 
Kootenai. Diggings were also reported on the main 
upper Columbia, eighty to one hundred and twenty 
miles from Kootenai, paying from four to eight dol- 
lars a day ; and at the crossing of the trail to Hope 
there were others said to equal Wild Horse Creek. '^ 

In the early part of the season of 1865 Fisherville 
had a famine, but this was remedied by the arrival of 
the first supplies as soon as the roads were cleared of 
snow.^ Reenforcements also arrived, and by July a 
thousand men were said to be camped on and round 
Wild Horse Creek. The gold commissioner reported 
forty or fifty claims being worked on the creek, pro- 
ducing from one to three ounces to the hand with nug- 
gets weighing several ounces. The Wild Horse Creek 
Ditch, just completed at a cost of twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars, was carrying two thousand inches of 
water, and affordinoj facilities for workino^ a hundred 
claims.^ During the summer there was quite a stam- 
pede to Helena, in the Blackfoot country, and to the 
Saskatchewan and Big Bend, but many returned in 
October to work the well yielding though shallow sur- 
face diggings of Kootenai. ^° 

' Fred. White, in Victoria Colonist, Sept. 6_, Nov. 22, Dec. 27, 1864. During 
1864 J. C. Haynes ofBciated as gold commissioner. In 1865 he was succeeded 
by Mr O'Reilly. The favorable conditions for agriculture and stock-raismg 
together with the pleasing scenic aspect of the terraced valley of the Kootenai 
gave to the region attractions and advantages over many other mining dis- 
tricts in British Columbia. Farms were established on the terraces, and irri- 
gation was resorted to in places, though this was not necessary on St Joseph 
Prairie. 

* A letter from Wild Horse Creek, dated May 4th, mentioned that provi- 
sions were very scarce, the miners livdng on hare, marten, and fish. All the 
powder and shot and fish-hooks in the camp were sold ; those who had re- 
mained in the diggings were shut up all winter with inadequate supi^lies. 
AVhen the first provisions arrived potatoes sold rapidly at §1 a pound, and flour 
at $1.25. 

^ Mr Dewdney estimated that there were a thousand men on Wild Horse 
Creek at the end of July. VoweWs B. C, MS., 1,3; Vic. Col., Dec. 27, 1864, 
June 6, July 18, Aug. 8, 1865; Cariboo Sentinel in Id. , June 20, 1865. Mr Lyon, 
a trader, reported in Oregon that Kootenai rivalled Cariboo; two men had 
taken out sixty pounds of gold in two days. 

^°VictoriaColonid,Seiit. 19, 1865; West Columbian in Victoria Colonist, Nov, 
7, 1865. On the dry terraced plains of the mountain valleys bunch grass grew 
in abundance; and the Indians having large herds of horses they readily sold 
them to the miners, so that almost every one owned a horse, and could move 
freely about. This led to a state of affairs vei-y unsatisfactory to the gold 



TOWARD THE EAST. 525 

The Blackfoot and Saskatchewan countries had for 
some time been reputed rich in gold, and a large 
number of miners was attracted to them, not only 
from Kootenai, but from Cariboo and other districts.'^ 
A. G. Smith and several others, who in 18GG went to 
Helena in Montana, worked successfully until August, 
when an excitement was created about the Saskatch- 
ewan diggings, which fanned into action the general 
desire to prospect the eastern slope of the Rocky 
Mountains, opposite the upper Columbia. Smith set 
out at once with seven others, for Edmonton, by way 
of Kootenai Pass, and arrived there safely in thirty- 
eight days, despite the hostile Indians. The gold 
deposits were found scattered for a hundred miles above 
and below Edmonton upon the Saskatchewan bars, but 
these could be worked only for a short time in the 
spring and autumn, when the river was low and the 
yield was merely two dollars a day or less, with 
rockers. ^'- 

In 18G6 Fisherville was pulled down for the purpose 
of working the ground on which it stood, and the 
operation is said to have been highly remunerative. 

commissioner, who was also the magistrate and peace officer of the district. 
If the lawless adventurer fell into trouble with the authorities he had only to 
saddle his horse and escape across the boundary into Idaho, or across the moun- 
tains into the country of the Blackfeet. A degree of freedom bordering on 
outlaAVTy ^\■as the consequence. The route travelled from Victoria to Koo- 
tenai in 1 SG5 was partly by steamer ria Portland to White Bluflfs, thence by 
land to Colville and on by the wagon road opened in 1S64 from there to Pend 
d'Oreille. Vowell's B. C. Mines, MS., 1-3. 

" Sweeney of Cariboo went there and -vvrote back that he had made more 
money in the Blackfoot region during the season 'than anybody ever did in 
Cariboo.' Victoria Colonist, Oct. 31, 18G.5. 

^^ The Blackfqet were very troublesome away from the fort, and it was 
declared tliat they had killed as many as 300 of the over-venturesome miners 
and prospectors in the neighborhood of the Elk River and Fort Benton passes. 
Smith returned by the northern pass and reached New Westminster in April 
1SG7. One of the members of Moberly's party of explorers for the railway, 
who went to the Rocky ^lountains in .June 1871, made a more thorough ex- 
ploration of the gold-bearing country around Fort Edmonton, and reported 
that the gold extended fifty miles west and for four hundred miles to 
the east of the fort, all the bars of the Saskatchewan witlmi that area con- 
taining auriferous deposits. This was nearly all fine gold, but the tributaries 
were also auriferous, and promised to contain heavier metal, while it was 
expected that quartz veins would be discovered near the fort. A^ew Westminster 
Examiner and Columbian quoted in Victoria Colonist, May 1, 7, IS61; Cam plieW a 
HepL, in Collingivood Bulletin, quoted in Victoria Colonist, May 19, 1872. 



523 UPPER COLU:\IBIA MIXES. 

Hydraulic minmg was carried on extensively after the 
completion of the large Victoria ditch, and j^elded 
well; yet the prospects in general were not suffi- 
ciently bright to retain the large mass of miners. The 
diggings, though extensive, were shallow and soon 
exhausted, and white miners were content to leave 
them to the less exacting Chinese. ^^ 

In 1868 mining gained a fresh impetus, and several 
claims sold by Johnson, the expressman, in 186G, for 
$75 were now resold for $1,200, while the whole hill 
near Fisherville was covered by fresh locations of 
minino- o-round.^* 

o o 

Chief among the discoveries in Kootenai district 
next to Wild Horse Creek, and twenty miles from it, 
was Perry Creek, a branch of St Mary's River, some- 
times called Xew Kootenai mines. It was opened in 
1867 'by Dan Kennedy, Little Sullivan, and a half- 
breed named Frank Perry, who had been fitted out 
by the miners on Wild Horse Creek to make locations 
in their behalf The three men took out $225 in live 
days, obtaining occasionally thirteen and eighteen dol- 
lars to the pan in coarse gold resembling that of Koo- 
tenai. Still coarser gold with larger yield was found 
above on the creek. So far as prospected at the end 
of the season of 1868, the ground generally yielded an 

" VoiceWs B. C. Mines, MS., 1-3. C. Oppenheimer brought $20,000 of dust 
to Victoria in September 1S6G. He reported that claims had changed hands 
at high prices, and that there were 700 miuers at work in the diggings iii 
August, when he left. Victoria Colonist, Sept. 4, 1S66. Later in the season 
parties from Kootenai reported that the Chinese were bidding for claims, 
and that many of the miners had sold out for §1,000. The Chinese were 
bidibng high for everj-thing else about the town, and almost entirely taking 
possession. Id., Nov. 20, ISGG. In 1SG7 a number of miners at Kootenai 
organized a prospecting expedition on a large scale which started on the 1st 
of May, and followed up Kootenai River for the purpose of prospecting the 
head-waters of that stream in the Eocky Mountains. Umatilla Columbia Press, 
Oct. 17, 1S57. The company were weU provided for an extended campaign, 
but I find no record of the result. 

^* Dove and Companj' carried on hj-draulic mining extensively, clearing 
up on one occasion, about midsummer, $1,400 from three days' working. 
Captain Wilson iu the Caiion was making from ten to twenty-five dollars a 
day in 1SG9. The Price, Griflith, Saunders, Schroeder, and Dove claims were 
all profitably emiiloyed. Indicative of general developments was the comple- 
tion of a saw-mill by Wood, who was also preparing to erect a flour-miU. 



NEW KOOTENAI. 527 

ounce a clay, though two out of the eight claims 
opened this season gave one hundred dollars daily to 
the man.^^ 

As soon as the news spread, a large rush took place 
and a town was formed composed largely of the popu- 
lation from Fisherville and Wild Horse Creek. About 
one hundred and fifty of the arrivals of 18G8 wintered 
in the mines while the rest prepared to return in the 
spring with the still larger influx which then took 
place. ^^ At first the blue clay was regarded as the 
bed-rock for the auriferous gravel below the falls; but 
this was penetrated during the winter of 18G8-9 by 
a number of shafts, and gravel was struck which paid 
in the poorest claims eleven dollars a day to the man, 
and frequently three times that amount. In 1869 fif- 
teen to twenty miles of the creek had been staked off 
chiefly with the expectation of securing a share of the 
deeper rich deposits; but this met with almost general 
disappointment. Only a few favorably located shafts 
reached a rich yet dry stratum, while the rest were 
driven out by water. ^' 

Good prospects were also found in 18G8 by the 
packer McGraugh on the divide between the Koote- 
nai and Pend d'Oreille rivers, and in 1869 a new 
camp was located on IMooj-ie River, a stream running 
parallel with Perry Creek, and debouching into Pea- 
vine Prairie Lake. At its mouth lay bars four or 

'* The gold first found below the falls, was like cticuinber seeds and only 
four to sLx feet from the surface, in a layer of gravel resting on a clay bed 
about four feet in thickness. Above the falls the gold was found on the bed- 
rock, and several parties in November took out from §11G to 815G in a day. 
Victoria Colonist, Oct. 24 and 31, 1SG8 ; Dawson on Mims, 38. 

" Victoria Colonist, Dec. 26, 1868, containing quotations from the Walla 
Walla Statesman; 11. B. Ward, in Victoria Weekly Colonist, March 27, 1869. 

" Victoria Colonist, April 24, 1869. The Hough Company in May took out 
$1,500 in 2 days from a space 8 feet square beneath the clay. W. J. Church, 
in Walla Walla Union, May 22, 1869. McGuilFs claim, the first one below 
the falls, took out §18 to §20 a day to the hand in July and August, and the 
Discovery Company §20 to §.30. All the claims in fact from the falls to Jack 
Tay's shaft were working profitably. Tay's shaft was do'wn 40 feet, and like 
the other deeper claims had great trouble with the water. According to 
some of the miners the ground was spotted. Prmj Cre^k, Aug. 2; Victoria 
Colonist, Aug. 22, 1869. 11. Finlayson, however, reported in 1870 that none 
of them had been able to bottom a shaft yet. Victoria Colonid, June 19, 1S70. 



r28 UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

five miles in extent which yielded from two and a 
half to eight dollars a day to the hand, and thence 
to St Joseph Prairie, over a large area, the prospects 
showed three to five cents to the pan. Ditches were 
projected the same year for working the ground. 
Aided by the discoveries made from time to time, 
Kootenai had managed to maintain a prominent posi- 
tion as a mining district, chiefly in the hydraulic 
branch, for which it enjoyed better advantages than 
Cariboo; but in 1872 Mr Vowell, the new gold com- 
missioner and magistrate for Kootenai, reported the 
principal mines worked out, with the exception of 
those on Wild Horse and Perry creeks, which still con- 
tained some of the rich deposits; but, reasoning by the 
Cariboo and other developments, miners still believed 
that the district w^ould maintain itself, particularly 
as the deposits resembled the latter developed cement 
strata w^iich had yielded so well in California.^^ 

^^ Walla Walla Statesman, Oct. 9, 18G8. It was stoutly maintained by the 
newspapers at Victoria that the Kootenai and other mining localities of the 
Selkirk, Gold, and Purcell ranges, here forming the inner parallels of the 
Rocky Mountain flange of the plateau, comprised rich and extensive placer 
fields, and that 5,000 or even 10,000 miners could readily find profitable 
employment in their stream-beds and gulches. Generally speaking, the claims 
had hitherto paid six dollars and ixpward a day to the hand. Daily Colonist, 
Jan. 19, 18G9; Sivoat's B. C, 76. If unlucky explorers failed to make their 
fortunes on the new creeks, this was not a sufficient reason for declaring the 
field exhausted, for it was shown by similar experience in Cariboo that the 
main deposits were seldom reached. The gravel and pay-dirt of the Koote- 
nai region appeared to the miners different in many respects from the super- 
ficial auriferous gravel of California. The latter was friable and easily 
worked, while that of the Kootenai mines, as exposed by the hydraulic hose, 
was like the cement worked in California at a later date, only with larger 
outlays of capital. The value of the deep ground on Perry Creek remained a 
mystery. Though the Purcell, Selkirk, and Gold ranges, together with the 
main Rocky Mountain parallels, were all proved to be gold-bearing, the 
favored formations were but imperfectly traced. Between the widely dis- 
tributed gravel formations of the terraces, or benches, that might be worked 
profitably by hydraulics, and those which obviously could not be so worked, 
trial had failed to develop any satisfactory distinction. The terraces of the 
Kootenai and upper Columbia rivers, like those of the Fraser, constitute a 
noteworthy scenic as well as mining and agricultural feature of these mountain 
parallels. Tliey are wide ancient river valleys filled to a great depth with 
more or less auriferous detritus. Benches rise 600 feet above the streams 
and 4,000 feet above the sea in successive steps to what is the ancient filled- 
up river valley level. Though the streams have sluiced down to great depths 
into the gravel and lighter detritus, tliey have not yet, it appears, penetrated 
to the bed-rock as in California. Mr Hector of Palliser's exploration vis- 
ited this country and described its terraces in 1859. He afterward visited 



SALMON CREEK. 529 

Impressed with this belief, prospecting was largely 
pursued, particularly in 1874, under the stimulating 
impulse of government appropriation, designed to 
encourage new developments. Good prospects were 
obtained on several streams, such as Sloken River, 
emptying into- the Kootenai a short distance above 
its mouth, but they were not of sufficient importance 
to check the decline. In 1875 Kootenai yielded only 
$-11,000 from the bench and creek diggings, and two 
thirds of this came from Wild Horse Creek, the 
remainder being from Perry, Weaver, and Mootsai 
creeks, containing in all twenty-eight claims, many 
of them supplied by costly ditches, and worked by a 
total mining population of foi'ty white men and fifty 
Chinese. In 1876 most of the white men left the 
district, and the total yield dwindled to $25,000.^^ In 
1877 the total yield increased to $37,000, obtained 
from twenty-five claims on Wild Horse, Perry, and 
Palmer creeks, chiefly by Chinamen. During this 
year a trail was cut by a government road party to 
connect Kootenai with Fort McLeod on the eastern 
slope of the Pocky Mountains, and to open a path 
through regions where gold had previously been 
found. 

Peturning to the earlier years of mining in the 
upper Columbia basin, let us glance at tlie other 
mining localities which have a history subordinate or 
parallel to that of the Kootenai region. Salmon 
Creek, emptying into the Pend d'Oreille near its 

the hydraulic mining region in Yuba and Nevada counties, California, and 
remarked upon 'the great similarity between the superficial deposits of the 
famous gold country and those within the British territory to the north, 
which,' he continues, ' encourages me to assert that the whole country up to 
the Kootenai River and the base of the Rocky Mountains, wherever the 
ancient terraces prevail, resting on silurian or metamorphic rocks, will be 
found to be auriferous.' Hector had an experienced Californian in his party, 
who frequently washed color from the stream-beds. Hector's liept., in Loud. 
Geol. Soc, Quart. Jour., 18G1, 400-5. 

*' Two clitches were completed, however, to wash the benches of Wild 
Horse Creek, namely, the Victoria and the Hang, the latter by a Chinese com- 
pany, delivering GOO and 300 inches of water, respectively. Jliii. Mines Hept. 
1875, 1-1 G; 1S7G, 424. 

Hist. Brit. Col. 34 



530 UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

junction with the Columbia at Fort Shepherd, was 
wing-dammed in September 1865 by John Thornton, 
ahas Jolly Jack, and coarse bright gold obtained. 
Bars on the creek as well as on the main Columbia 
were at the same time worked by a great number of 
Chinese; and Forty-nine Creek, ninety miles from 
Colville, was a cause of excitement in March 1867. 
About twenty miners wintered at this j)lace in 1866-7, 
and reported that the diggings were not only easily 
reached, but extensive and readily worked, with coarse 
gold like that of Kootenai yielding six to eighteen 
dollars a day to the man.^° 

The bars of the main Columbia above Colville had 
been mined to some extent for several years before the 
Kootenai and Big Bend excitements attracted multi- 
tudes from a distance. At the time of the Kootenai 
excitement in 1865 there were several hundred Chinese 
at work upon them above Fort Shepherd, and doing 
well according to all accounts.^^ 

As early as February 1865 a person brought news 
to Victoria that extensive diggings had been found 
"about one hundred and seventy miles north of the 
old Kootenai district, equal in richness to the best 
known in Cariboo." ^^ The report was not lost, for arri- 

^^ Those who wintered on the creek worked bench diggings containing 
coarse gokl from the surface down. In one instance two ounces were taken 
from a single prospect hole in the bank. Forty-eight Creek, near by, was 
also reported rich, and quite a number of boats left Fort Colville for the two 
creeks in ISIarch 18G7, followed soon after by nearly one hundred persons 
from Portland. During the summer another excitement and rush was created 
by the report that twelve men had early in the season found rich diggings in 
the basin between the high mountains forming the southerly continuation of 
Kootenai Valley, on both sides of the boundarj' line and southward as far as 
Pend d'Oreille. Four of the discoverers, Allen, Moore, Ahern, and Anthony 
Cavanatigh, returned to the Spokane bridge for additional supplies, whence the 
information spread. On their way back to the mountains they were murdered 
by the Indians. They had eighteen horses and a large quantity of supplies. 
In the excitement which followed the announcement cf the discovery, a con- 
siderable force of miners was directed into that country. Victoria Colonist, 
Sept. 17, 1867. 

^' So absorbed were they that Dewdney found it impossible to engage more 
than seventy-five to work upon the Kootenai trail at seventy-five dollars a 
month. Victoria Colonist, Aug. 22, 18G5 Findlay Creek diggings, fifty miles 
north-west of the town of Kootenai, were discovered in 1865, a short time 
before the rush of that season was started by some half-breed miners from 
Colville. 

*^ Victoria Colonist, Feb. 14, 1865. Some prospectors who returned to 



ROUND BIG BEND. 531 

vals at Victoria from Colville in June stated that two 
liuudred men had ascended the Cohimbia to Big Bend, 
and that the river had ahnost the appearance of the 
Fraser in 1858, laden with canoes, boats, barges, and 
scows. At Dalles des Morts o'ood dio'Ofino-s were said 
to exist, and on the creeks emptying into the Columbia 
the yield was twenty-five cents to one dollar and a 
quarter to the pan. The excitement had begun, and 
it was expected that thousands would enter the 
country during the summer. ^^ 

The centre of attraction became known as Big 
Bend, named after the great bend of the Columbia in 
latitude 52°, where the river turns from a north-west- 
erly to a southerly course after breaking though the 
Selkirk range. The mining district was, however, a 
short distance from the bend where several small 
streams came down from the western slope of these 
mountains. The first discovered to contain rich placers 
were French and McCulloch creeks, branches of Gold 
Creek. W. S. Stone was despatched thither as ex- 
pressman, and on arriving at French Creek in August 
he found the ground staked ofi" for two miles, one hun- 
dred and twenty men, including many 'fifty-eighters,' 
being employed on the various creeks. The pioneers 
were four Frenchmen who had settled on French 
Creek early in the spring of 1865, and obtained sixteen 
dollars from eleven pans of dirt. All the bars along 
the Columbia to Big Bend were found to yield well in 
coarse gold not unlike that of Kootenai, but here all 

Walla Walla about the same time reported the upper Columbia diggings as 
'humbug.' Walla Walla Statesman, March 10, in Victoria Colonist, March 28, 
1865. Both of these parties travelled in winter, the former reporting the 
climate as ' splendid.' It will be seen from tliesc authorities that Big Bend 
was probably tliscovered by persons who descended the Columbia from 
Kootenai. 

2^ Perry, 'the well-known explorer,' reported that several miners had 
taken out §700 apiece in a very short time, and he himself was said to be 
making $100 a day, obtaining as much as .?4 to the pan. This was at the 
point where the vShusliwap trail struck the Columbia, and GO men were work- 
ing there. W. Robertson wrote in June that 18 boats had ascended tlie Co- 
lumbia that spring, and that the diggings mostly aimed for were 250 miles 
above Colville. Victoria Columlnan, quoted in Victorii Colonist, July 11, 1865; 
Cariboo Sentinel, quoted ii Victoria Colonist, Aug. 1, July 4, 1865. 



532 UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

trace of the metal was lost.-^ R. T. Smith, who acted 
as gold commissioner for the Big Bend district in 
18G5, left there in November and reported to the 
government at Victoria that the known yield of French 
Creek for the season was $32,000 ; of McCuUoch Creek, 
$2,700; and of Carnes Creek, $3,000; but on account 
of the gold export tax then in force, it was understood 
that not half of the gold taken out had been reported."^ 
Flooded streams and the lack of provisions and mining 
implements had besides retarded the work of the season 
materially, but during the coming year it was evident 
that efforts would be made to forward supplies to 
meet all demands, for the colonial government was 
opening a trail from Kamloop by way of Shushwap 
Lake, and a steamer was building above Colville to 
navigate the upper Columbia. 

In the spring of 1866 miners began in fact to flock 
in, and Portland was doing a large business with these 
districts."^ Finding that the trail would be inadequate 
to compete w^ith Oregon roads, the government im- 
proved the Shush w^ap route early in the year, and the 
Hudson's Bay Company built a steamer, the Martin, 

2* From Fort Shepherd it was reported September 2, 18C5, that on French 
Creek they had bottomed some shafts without success, and that there was 
nothing in the country to eat but ' flour straight. ' Victoria Weelly Colonist, 
Aug. 15, and Sept. 19, 1865. On the 19th of September there were 95 men 
on the creek, mostly engaged in wing-damming the stream. The La Fleur 
Company drifted into the hill-side and took out §500 in two days. The gravel 
for some distance above the bed-rock prospected between two and twelve 
dollars to the pan. /(/., Oct. 10, 18<J5. One third of the miners at Big Bend 
during the season had come from Colville and returned there ia October to 
Monter. Jd., Dec. 4 and 12, 18G5. 

^■'Kootenai was said to be comparatively abandoned in November 1865 
on account of the more attractive features of the Big Bend diggings. If the 
season kept open it was certain that boats filled with miners would continue 
to go up all winter, and in any event there would be a great rush in March. 
British Columbian, quoted in Victoria Daily Colonist, Jan. 15, 1866. In 
December the Victoria Colonist, Dec. 4, 1865, urged that they shoiild take a 
lesson from the Americans by advertising the mineral wealth of the country, 
and begun by pronouncing Big Bend the greatest gold-mining region yet 
discovered on the Pacific coast. 

■■"* Victoria Colonist, Dec. 5, 1865, April 10 and 24, 1866; Oregon Statesman, 
March 23, 1866. The attention of the mining population wintering at Port- 
laud was divided between Big Bend and Blackfoot, preponderating in favor 
of the former. A Dalles correspondent mentioned that numbers were daily 
crossing the river at that point, travelling on horseback for Big Bend by way 
of Okanagan and Kamloop. 



STEAM NA\^GATIOX. 533 

which on May 27tli began to make semi-weekly trips 
on Shushwap Lake to Seymour, charging ten dollars 
for fares and twenty dollars a ton for freight."^ Sey- 
mour on Shushwap Lake rose rapidly in consequence, 
and contained in April about twenty buildings. Quite 
a number of miners had arrived before the opening of 
navigation, drawing hand-sleds over the ice, and early 
in June there were five hundred men waiting here for 
the creeks to fall and for definite news from the mines.^ 
The disaster to the steamer LahoucJiere caused a 
rise in the fares and freights from San Francisco to 
Victoria, and aided to throw the Victoria route into 
the shade for the year, while AVhite's steamer. Forty- 
nine, and other boats plying regularl}^ between Col- 
ville and Death Rapids, rendered the approach by 
way of Portland so easy as to attract even Victoria 
trade."^ At Dalles des Morts, the head of steamer navi- 
gation, quite a number of Ajuerican business houses 
opened trade with the miners; near the mouth of 
Gold River the town of Kirb^^ville was started, and 
Romano's lumber-mill bciran turnino- out lumber in 
May 18GG at $125 a thousand feet, oficring facilities 
both for mining and building operation s.^*^ 

-" Tlie lake contained many boats which were brought into use in opposi- 
tion to the steamer, carrying passengers for two and a half and frei^;llt for 
fifteen dollars. There were two lar^'e canoes at the terminus of the road to 
convey passengers over Shushwap Lake to Seymour. Here and at Kamloop 
an abundance of provisions was announced to be in readiness for the mines. 
Victoria Coloni,st, April 17, 18G0. Victorians advertised and placarded the 
new mines on every wall, and especially the route thereto by way of Victoria 
and Kamloop, while tlie Portland journals did their best to counteract them 
by casting discredit on the British Columbians and their route. Victoria Col- 
ontat, April 2(5, May 1, 18G6. 

^*A character named Thousand Dog Joe, alias Tcllias, had a seven-dog 
team and a toboggan with which he carried supplies to tlie Big Bend Mines. 

■^'The Forty-nine made her lirst trip f rom- Culville to Death Rupidis with 85 
passengers but little freight, and arrived at the latter place April 20, ISUG, 
being ten days in making tlie trip up through the ice, taking passengers for 
§25 and freight at §200 a ton. She paid for herself the first season. Victoria 
Colonist, April 7, ISOG; Nno Westminster Examiner, Sept. 25, lSo7. From 
Dalles des Morts freight was carried in boats. There was but one mail to 
the Kootenai mines from Victoria for six months, owing to tlie fact tliat the 
legislature of ISGS failed to make the usual arrangements with Johnson, the 
expressman and mail-carrier. In the season of ISGD tlie service was restored. 
Victoria ColoniM, Sept. 22, 18G9. Farming was by this time carried on liere 
to a considerable extent. 

^ Suiiplies M'ere dragged in boats through the rapids to Wilson's landing, 25 



534 UPPER COLUMBIA MIXES. 

The particular advantages claimed for the Big Bend 
mines were that they were easily reached and at first 
easily worked, while the gold was widely scattered 
and provisions cheap, so that miners could live on 
eight dollars a week. Dupuy's hill claim on French 
Creek was reported to have yielded $2,500 in a week, 
the Discovery 60 ounces in one day, and the Shep 
Bailey $1,500 within a few days. But although 
many claims yielded richly, and the field was exten- 
sive, yet the population of Big Bend district at this 
time, estimated by some into the thousands, was too 
large for all to obtain a share of the treasure and the 
disappointed ones were apt to declaim against the 
country. ^^ 

By the middle of June the lead had been tapped 
on the creek for a distance of one and a quarter miles 
from the town, and it became apparent that the better 
diggings were not shallow, as had been at first 
assumed, but required expensive work, partty on 
account of the large bowlders in the bed of the deep 
channel. This gave a further impetus to the large 
exodus which had already begun, and in October 1866 
the failure of the Big Bend diggings was bruited far 
and wide by those who had returned unsuccessful. 
Provisions now became scarce, and entire camps lived 
for weeks on a little flour and beans. But for the 
services of the steamer Forty-nine they would have 
perished. A number of parties were doing well, 



miles further up the river; thence they were packed on the shoulders of carriers 
to Gold River, a distance of three miles, and boated up the river to the mouths 
of the several mining creeks. At French Creek there was another portage of 
two miles to the stores. On the 19th of May one of these boats containing 
23 persons came down over the rapids. Being overloaded and carelessly man- 
aged it capsized and all but five were drowned. 

^' Westminster Columbian, in Victoria Colonist, May 22, 1S66. Seven men 
who had remained on French Creek through the preceding winter sank a shaft, 
but at a depth of twenty-eight feet they were flooded out. By the end of 
May fourteen companies were preparing to wash. In Oit's claim an eight- 
ounce nugget was found in deep ground. R. Cameron in Victoria Colonist, 
June 7 and 14, 1866. Monroe and Company on French Creek washed up in 
one day in June nineteen ounces. Victoria Colonist, June 26, 1866. On the 2d 
of July a flood on French Creek destroyed ail the wing-dams, wheels, and 
sluices. Id., July 24, 1866. 



CHARACTER OF DEPOSITS. 535 

however, and in August the Thompson Company- 
took out between $2,000 and $3,000 in a week, the 
Ridge Company seventy-nine ounces, and the Guild 
Company fifty-nine and a half ounces one week and 
seventy-one ounces another week. The Black Hawk 
tunnel on French Creek excited particular attention, 
and as the two men working it took out in one week 
twelve ounces of gold, the experiment was considered 
successful.^^ In regard to the results for the season, 
Mr Oppenheimer estimated the total returns of the 
district at $250,000, and 3-et the season had, in his 
opinion, been particularly unfavorable to mining opera- 
tions. Of this amount French and McCulloch creeks 
yielded each about $100,000. A. G. Smith on his 
return from the Saskatchewan early in the spring of 
1867 passed through the Big Bend district and found 
that a hundred miners had partially or wholly win- 
tered on French Creek alone. But the prestige of 
the district had departed; the deep ground, still 
sought by a few, was doomed to wait for more favor- 
able conditions in a new era, and surface mining was 
continued as the only resource throughout the season 
of 1867. Some of the claims paid from six to eleven 
dollars to the man, but as a rule the miners who 
reached New Westminster in the autumn expressed 
themselves dissatisfied with the returns.^^ French 
Creek declined rapidly, and in 1869 only thirty-seven 
men were reported at work there, partly in deep dig- 

^^The same men obtained $112 from the benches in four and a half days, 
and a nugget of 838 was also found. W. L. Wade of Walla Walla reported 
in Novemljer 18G6 that 1,000 men were in the mines on French, McCulloch, 
and Cames creeks, and the bars of the Columbia between Gold and Carnes 
creeks — a far too high estimate according to other accounts — and that very 
few made expenses, the only two creeks that paid being French and McCul- 
loch. ' On all the streams upon which gold has been discovered,' said Wade, 
' the bed-rock — which was generally expected to prove rich — is so deep that 
it cannot be reached without better appliances for protection against water. ' 
More than three fourths of those who came down with Wade were unable to 

Kiy their fare on the Fortn-nine. Fifty men remained on French Creek in 
ecember ISOO; tlie Discovery and the Half-breed claims continued to pay, 
and also the Wiugdam and Black Hawk. Victoria Colonist, Jidy 10, Sept. 18, 
Nov. 27, and Dec. 11, 1SG6. 

^^ New IV tut mi lister Examiner, Nov. 13, 18G7. 



536 UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

gings, though it was still maintained that six dollars 
a day and upwards could be made in the district.^* 

McCuUoch Creek was but a reproduction of French 
Creek. It yielded as much as one hundred dollars a 
day to some claims, while the Clemens Company took 
out in 1865 from twelve to thirty-five ounces daily; 
and in connection witli the coarse gold nuggets ranging 
from twenty-five dollars downwards, fragments of rich 
quartz were found in the , creek-bed below. ^^ A few 
men wintered on the creek in 1865, while their part- 
ners went to Colville for supplies, and a little town 
arose which in June 1866 counted half a dozen log 
huts. In the spring shafts were sunk, hill-side tunnels 
were worked, wing-dams constructed, and tail-races 
cut. As on French Creek, the presence of large 
bowlders proved a serious hinderance and rendered 
many claims worthless. The lower mile and a half 
of the creek was considered of no value, but above, 
particularly in the gravel beds, it was yielding steadily 
from four to six and even twelve ounces a day. As 
the creek was ascended the coarse gold increased into 
regular nuggets, one of which resembled a plate, and 
weighed two hundred and fifty-three dollars. A num- 
ber of miners persevered in the main object, which was 
to penetrate to th bed-rock, and this was found by 
some at six feet, but others sank even sixty feet with- 
out reaching it, and were eventually forced out by 
water. ^^ 

^^ The Welsh hydraulic was at work while the water lasted, but ceased 
operations in June on account of the dryness of the season. The winter of 
18o!)-70 was mild and open, so that the Bailey Company lost but three work- 
ing days during the season ending March 9th. A steady yield averging 
miich over laborer's wages continued to attract the small mining population. 
Victoria Colonist, May 7, 18o7; Jan., July, 1SG9; April 1870. French Creek 
had been tlie richest, and iu many other respects the representative, creek of 
the district, the Half-breed claim, its most famous spot, yielding as it did 
§100 a day to the man, though not regularly. 

2* VovwlCs Brit. Col. Mines, MS., 11, 12. This creek went also under the 
name of Clemens Creek after the Clemens Comx^any. On one occasion §105 
was obtained in a single pan. In common Avith French Creek, this was 
reported and believed^at the time to be ' the biggest discovery on the coast. ' 
Victona Colonist, Dec." 19, 1865. 

*^ There were a dozen companies at work in August 1866, extending a mile 
and a half above the towTi, but most miners were awaiting the result of the 



A HUNDRED CREEKS. 537 

In midsummer McCulloch Creek was said to have 
a popluation of 120, while French Creek had 150, 
and the entire district about 350. The Dart Com- 
pany's claim had a shaft 40 feet deep, in the bottom 
of which $2 GO in coarse gold was obtained, while the 
Discovery Company found a prospect of $22 to the 
]ian.^' Half-way from here to the Upper Arrow 
Lake, on a little stream running parellel to Gold 
River, Hank Carnes in the spring of 18G5 prospected 
a small creek named after him, and obtained from four 
pans of dirt three dollars and thirty-seven cents of 
coarse gold. A rush followed this discovery, and 
Carnes Creek was occupied nearly simultaneously 
with French Creek, 60 miners being reported on the 

oround in the autumn, sufterinof somewhat from a lack 

. . . ® 

of provisions. The deposits were declared identical 

with those of French and McCulloch creeks, but 
Robert Nobles, one of the members of the Cariboo 
Company, who prospected the bed of the creek in the 
autumn of 1865, satisfied himself that the disfiJfino^s 
were even deeper and the bed-rock still more unattain- 
able.^^ The shallower ground, however, offered a fair 
though limited field, which was worked for some time 
by a small number. 

operations of the Yale Company, who had set out with the determination of 
exploring the gutter of the deep ground. All the hopes of the creek rested 
upon their success. They wore down 50 feet in August 18GG, pumping with 
the aid of a wheel, and finally they struck a pitching hed-rock. Viclorii Col- 
onist, Aug. 28, Oct. 16, 18G6. Hence they drifted toward the deep ground 
and sunk three blmd shafts. From the laat of these they drifted again, and 
were in three sets of timber when the How of water ohli^'cd them to retire. JS'cio 
West.nbifiter Exandncr, Sept. 25, ISG7; Walla Walla SUtte-finan, Aug. 10, 1SG6. 

^' A batch of $'GO,000 of gold-dust was taken from here to "Walla Walla by 
J. Kauflfmann. Victoria Colonist, July 3, 11, Aug. 14, 18GG; May7, 18(j7. Above 
the canon tlie country is open, having gentle slopes not unlike those. of Mink 
(iulch on William Creek, which tlicae mines were thouglit to resenddo. Oa 
p:irt of First Flat in this open country the creek was found to traverse a 
piece of liigh bed-rock with patches of gravel, having probably been forced 
aside from the deep channels by a slile. The gold was of a blackisli brown 
hue, colored by the oxide of iron wiLh which the gravel -vvaa impregnated. 
'B. D.,'in Victoria Colonic, Sept. 18, ISGo. 

'^ Dairsoji on Mines, 39; Victoria Colonist, April 24, June 7, ISGG. Mc- 
Donald and Company attempted it in May 186G, and reached a depth of 45 
f jot without striking bed-rock. A miner who arrived at Yale in the spring of 
ISOG, with some gold directly from Carnes Creek, reported the existence of 
rich beujh or bank diggings with many small uuggets weighing up to CI'*. 



538 UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

On the bars of the Columbia twelve miles above 
this creek, Hank Carnes in the same spring found four 
men at work with rockers taking out fine gold resem- 
bling that of the Eraser, at the rate of one hun- 
dred dollars a day, and in 1866 the bars above the 
Arrow Lakes were occupied by miners who managed 
to obtain a living, and even to make ten dollars a day. 
But these deposits could be worked only a short season, 
as the river was liable to rise over them at any time. 
The district held out through the usual vicissitudes of 
partially abandoned camps until 1871, and even in 1878 
there were a few miners and prospectors who appeared 
to have settled, taught by the logic of the facts brought 
out in the Big Bend rush that there was wealth in 
the district if it could only be reached.^^ Carnes 
asserted that he had prospected the Columbia from 
the head-waters of the Kootenai to Carnes Creek, and 
had always found color. Prospecting and mining had 
indeed, with more or less success, been followed on 
the east side of Selkirk Mountain and ajso at Moberly, 
Cherry, and other creeks, on the west or Gold Bange 
side of the river. The gold-bearing tract of the Sel- 
kirk range which formed the Big Bend district 
extended evidently for at least seventy -five miles along 
the western slope, and whatever its value, the failure 
of the district must be attributed chiefly to the flow of 
water, preventing miners from reaching the deep 
ground under the clay which was everywhere reported 
to exist in the Big Bend as well as in the Kootenai 
district. Much of the shallower ground had been 
condemned as spotted before it w^as fairly tested, and 
the early prospects on the surface at French and Mc- 
CuUoch creeks were regarded as the only decidedly 
rich yields. 

The mining developments in the Columbia basin, 
as well as those made in the Fraser River basin after 
the excitement in 1861, were not unnoticed by scien- 
tific men. A correspondent of the London Times 

39 Voweirs B. C. Mines, MS., 10-12; Victoria Colonist, July 3, 1866. 



GOLD EVERYWHERE. 539 

presented evidence on which he ventured tlie opinion 
that the whole mountain system of British Columbia 
was auriferous as far as the Stikeen River, "the long- 
est stretch of continuous inland gold-producing country 
yet discovered in the world," from which incalculable 
advantage must result to the colony as well as to 
the mother country. Sir Koderick Murchison alco 
expressed the opinion, based upon orographic data, that 
the auriferous matrix would bo found to extend along 
tlie slope.-; of the mountains of the whole cordillera 
system, including the plateau between tlie Cascade and 
Itochy ranges. The placer diggings he showed were 
undeniably but the alluvial deposits brought down from 
these mountains by the streams/" This was confirmed 
by numerous developments, among them the diggings 
at Rock Creek in the centre of the plateau on the boun- 
dary line. The upper Columbia and its tributaries 
in cutting through the gold-bearing belts of the pla- 
teau had revealed the fact that the whole country not 
covered by comparatively recent formations was au- 
riferous, but outside of the deep and ancient channelj 
zones were disclosed only in a few localities rich enough 
to pay. Rock Creek acquired a reputation in the 
summer of 18 GO, and a considerable population flocked 
in, forming a town and mining both in bench and creek 
dii^'gings. One or more ounces a day were often ob- 
tained, and during tlie season of 18G1 a party of white 
men secured twelve thousand dollars, besides expense;;, 
the average earnings a day being seven dollars to 
the nian.''^ The Cariboo excitement caused Rock 
Creek to be almost abandoned in 18G2, and for sev- 
eral years little was done in or heard from it. Contem- 
poraneously with the Big Bend excitement, however, 

*" J?awllnijs' Conjederation, US; Mayne's British Columbia, 441-2. 

*' About a mile from its mouth the crcolc tliggiugs pai.l from one to two 
ounces, and sometimes one hundred dollars a day to tlie liaud, the benches in 
o.ie instance j-ielding au ounce a day for the season. It was observed that 
tlie best diggings occurro<l where the creek ha<l cut through a belt of soft rock. 
Dnw-iwi OH Jlims, 41. To the history i>f tlie creek bc'lon;;s the shooting dur- 
i 1 'a dispute, in July 1S;U, of Davi 1 liarr by Frank Porter, who escaped acrosa 
Iho frontier. McDonald's British Columbia, 89. 



540 UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

the report spread that rich diggings had again been 
found, and the place received greater attention/"" 

In 18G8 the bed-rock flume was completed, which 
enabled the holders of claims along the creek to take 
out from eight to twelve dollars a day by ground- 
sluicing. During the season of 1870, the company 
operating the flume in the bed of the creek took out 
six thousand dollars at their first clean-up; and having 
as yet barely touched the edge of the pay-dirt, which 
consisted of a layer of gravel and sand twelve feet in 
thickness, they expected in August to take out three 
times as much.^^ 

Descending still farther toward the inner flank of 
the Cascade Mountains, I find a recurrence of the 
Rock Creek developments. Along the Okanagan 
branch of the Columbia, not only on the east side as 
far as Mission Creek, but also on the west side at 
Similkameen, placers existed which were the scenes 
of excitements during the earliest days of mining in 
British Columbia; and on the Washington side of the 
boundary around Lake Chelan, a large area of country 
was found to contain quartz veins and local placers. 
Along Okanagan River, the deposits were scattered, 
and in most cases worked for but a short time, chiefly 
perhaps, from want of water. Out of nineteen streams 
falling into Okanagan Lake, seven were, in 1861, found 
to be gold-bearing, and Mission Creek, flowing into it 
from the east, had placers which yielded in 1859-60 both 
fine and coarse gold, at the rate of from two to forty 
dollars a day to the man.^* Near Fort Okanagan, sixty 

*^In March 1866, 14 whites ami 40 Chinese were at work on the creek. 
Randall and Company washed ^11 out of 100 buckets of dirt, and in 18G8-9 
the Bedi-ock Flume Company of 7 men was mining successfully. The Hy- 
draulic Company of 3 men was making in 1SG9 froui $S to |!10 a day. Besides 
these, 20 Chinese were engaged in sluicing. Victoria Colonist, April 7, 1866; 
June 5, 1869. 

^^ They were much troubled with quicksand, but mastered it. Requiring 
80,000 feet of lumber for their operations in 1871, it was the intention of the 
company to erect a saw-mill in the mean time. Tliree companies of Chinese 
were at work on the creek making .?3 a day to the hand. Victoria Colonist, 
July 27, 1870. 

**In 1877 McDougall and Company were making, on Mission Creek, from 
ten to fifteen dollars a day to the hand. Dawson on Mines, 41; London 



THE OKAXAGAX MINES. 541 

miles south of the boundary line, a population of 
twenty-six miners were in 18G1 dividing their time 
between mining and husbandry, averaging four dollars 
a day in the diggings. The small population then in 
the valley consisted mainly of French Canadians and 
Catholic missionaries. On Simiikamecn River, en- 
tering the Okanagan at the boundary line, gold was 
found ^^ in sharp, unwashed particles, which in 1861 
yielded some miners one ounce a day, but on an aver- 
age the rocker produced four, live, and eight dollars a 
day eacli to the two hundred miners then said to be at 
work in the diggings; one hundred and fifty of these 
were Chinese, who soon obtained almost sole posses- 
sion; but they also abandoned the place graduallj-. 
In the spring of 186G, however, a little excitement 
again attracted a number of them from Hope, and in 
September, between forty and fifty were at work, 
making good wages. *^ 

The year 18G0 witnessed the crossing of the west- 
ern rim of the plateau by bodies of miners, moving 
eastward in British Columbia as well as in California. 
An observer from the remote standpoint of history 
could have then seen at the same instant excited 
miners sluicing in the canons at Gold Hill, Simiika- 
mecn, Cariboo, and Pike's Peak — the Pocky j^.Ioun- 
tains having been first reached from the west b}^ the 
eastward-flowing current through the inviting valley 

Tbnefi, cor. Jan. 20, 1862, in BaioUm/s' Conft'dei-ation, 114; U. S. Min. Sta- 
ti-'<tic'<, 13GS, 508. 

*■' A character known as Jackass John prospected Similkameen River in 
18G0 a:ul wing-dammed a portion of it. After working two days, and taking 
out .?40, the water rose and drove him out. John then Avcnt to Sahnou River, 
Boise, Bl.ickfoot, and Kootenai in turn. In October 18GC), he returned to the 
site of his previous mi-sfortunes by flood, and in fourteen days, unaided and 
alone, he waslied out ^900. A party of three men engaged in sluicing took 
out i'l'iO in three days. Victoria ColoniKt, Feb. 5, 1SG7. 

*" There was rejjorted to be a 'false bed-rock ' also in this ground, under- 
laid by a bed of gravel. Victoria Coloiiifst, May '22, Oct. 2, 18GG, in letters from 
Hope, dated May ISth and Sept. 25th respectively. Similkameen and Okana- 
gan countries were admitted by both Palmer and Mayne to possess superior 
advantages in agriculture as well as mining. The mines being opposite Hope, 
they could be reached from there by a 25-mile wagon-roa<l to the liead of 
S!:agit River, and thence by trail. The articles requiring transportation by 
wagon wore largely supplied to the country at that time from the American 
side of the line. RawUmjs' Confederation, 114; Mayne's B. C, 389. 



542 UPPER COLUMBIA MINES. 

of the Fraser. But no such population could be in- 
duced to cross the Cascades in the north as reenforced 
the camp upon the croppings at Virginia and Gold 
Hill, otherwise it might have puzzled the historical 
prophet witnessing the operations of 1861 to deter- 
mine whether mining in the northern interior should 
not have had an equal prominence in the following 
decades. In. subsequent years a like metalliferous 
country was developed with the same series of geologi- 
cal formations. But quartz bonanzas, unless exceed- 
ingly rich, were not wanted by the men, who with 
pans, shovels, and rockers climbed over the Cascades 
in the north. What they wanted was simply placer 
gold. Had they found anything more, there existed 
no lines of travel nor hives of population within reach 
of these outlying districts that could pour in the 
necessary additional forces, machinery, appliances, and 
capital for exploration underground. To follow the 
deposits in that direction, however strongly they might 
have been indicated, was clearly out of the question. 
The day of roads, of machinery, and of cheap supplies 
had not yet come. Between 1860 and 1866 Washoe 
and Reese Biver were taking their first lessons in 
silver mining. When the most superficial bars and 
placers had been worked, the lid of cla}^ in the ancient 
channels was reached; when machinery, capital, and 
skill were requisite to proceed further, the wandering 
fortune-hunters betook themselves to other fields. All 
the evidences of decay, failure, recklessness, and ruin 
which presented tliemselves to the vision of the after- 
comers, only assisted to render the stereotyped but 
superficial and not final verdict — exhausted. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

18G1-1882. 

Omineca Country — Peace River Prospected — Go^t;knment Expedition — 
Prospecting Chase— Vitale Creek — Omineca Overrated— German - 
SEN Creek — Sluicing — Manson and Lost Creeks — Finlay River— 
Tue Skeena and Coast Placers— Prospects of Settlements— Cause 
of Decline — The Stikeen Explored— Thibert's Discovert — Cas- 
siAR Placers — Dease Lake Tributaries. 

Beyond Fraser River basin the plateau of the Cor- 
dillera continues northward in two principal flanges 
bordered by slaty gold and silver-bearing mountains 
similar in character to the Bald Mountains of Cariboo.^ 
It descends gradually toward the sea at Bering Straits, 
forming for sixteen hmidred miles the trough of Yukon 
River. Between the Fraser and Yukon river basins 
the Omineca and Cassiar mining districts, represent- 
ing the northward movement of the mining popula- 
tion of the coast, came into existence soon after the 
settlement of Cariboo, each rising along a great river, 
which interlacing its head- waters on the plateau with 
those of another great river of the opposite eastern 
slope, aflbrded a broad avenue for the prospectors and 
traders who began to occupy this region. 

Omineca,^ the name given to the mining district of 
the Skeena and Peace River section of the plateau, 

' The identity in axis or strike was not traced to a nicety. Some thought 
the mountains drained by the Finlay and Omineca branches of Peace River 
•were the continuation of the mountainous country exiilored by Black and 
Fenton east of Cariboo, if not of the Cariboo Bald Mountain Range. Carilioo 
Si'utincl, Oct. 2.3, 18G9. 

^ After a species of whortleberry growing there and forming a staple arti- 
cle of food of the Indians. Mackenzie of the Hudson Bay Compatiij, in Victoria 
Coloimt, Jan. 8, 1870. 

(M3) 



544 GOLD DISCOVERIES IX TEE FAR XORTH. 

may be described as 1,500 to 2,000 feet lower tlian 
the Cariboo section, and more gentle in its undulations 
than usual with mining districts on the coast, yet a 
cold, cheerless, and barren region.^ It nevertheless 
presented noteworthy and attractive features, and 
was the earliest portion of the Pacific slope visited 
by English settlers from the north Atlantic coast. 

Peace Piver"^ cleaving the Rocky ]\Ioun tains to their 
base led Sir Alexander Mackenzie and his Canadian 
voyageurs into New Caledonia, or Omineca, in the last 
century, and after 1806 the country was permanently 
occupied by the fur-traders. Py the Peace and Skeena 

^ At Omineca diggings jiroper, situated near the head-waters of the Peace 
and Skeena rivere, the country resembled Quesnel moutli in Eraser River 
basin, a thickly wooded plateau region, free from high mountains and of ea-y 
transit. In regard to the climate and agricultural value of the country, 
accounts differed. The Colonkt described it as ' free from the extremes of cold 
and heat,' winter setting in at the end of October, and ending about the ISth 
of April, the snow in exceptional winters attaining a depth of only three feet. 
By April 15th the whole country was open and the Hudson's Buy Compajiy 
usually despatched their winter collection of furs down the Eraser River. 
Potatoes and turnips floui-ished; but cereals had not been brouglit to perfec- 
tion on account of the early frosts. Lieut. H. S. Palmer, on the other hand, 
writing in 18G4, said: 'All that portion [of British Cohimbia] lying to the 
north of the 54th parallel remains, and is likely to remain, an uninhabited 
wilderness. ' From the Hudson's Bay Company's servants we learn that although 
not entirely devoid of attractive features and occasional patches of good soil, 
this portion of the colony is on the whole cheerless and uninviting, and 
especially ill adapted for the occupation of man. Moreover, its high latitude 
and extreme elevation and the rigorous climatic influences to which it is sub- 
jected are elements little likely to encourage its speedy development. Lond. 
Geog. Soc, Jour., vol. 34, 172-3. The coiuitry along Peace River, above the 
junction of Finlay River, resembled that of the Fraser at Alexandria, and 
though farther north it was all much lower and not so cold a country as Cari- 
boo. B. Col. Directory, 1SG3, 204-5. Harman, a jiartner of the Northwest 
Company, stationed at Stewart Lake in ISll, made mention repeatedly in 
his journal of the soil being good in places. Turnips and potatoes planted in 
1811 produced well. 'The soil in many places in New Caledonia i3 tolerably 
good. ' ' There is not a month in the whole year, ' he adds, ' in which water 
does not congeal, though the air in the daytime, in summer, is warm, and we 
even have a few days of sultry weather. Harmnns Jour. (Andover, 1C20), 
117, 248, 257, 2(32; VowelVs B. 0. Mines, MS., 13-14; Vktona Daihj Colonist, 
Feb. 23, 1870. 

^ The name of Peace River was derived from ' Peace Point, ' a landmark 
on lower Peace River a short distance above its outlet in Athabasca Lake, 
where a peace had been concluded between the Knisteneaux and Beaver 
Indians some time befoi-e Sir Alexander Mackenzie's exploration. Its proper 
Indian name was abo the name of the country through which it ran — Uniigali 
country and river — the ownership of which Avas iii dispute and was settled at 
the time and place mentioned. These facts were stated by Mackenzia's inter- 
preter, from which it is to be inferred that tlie name of Peace River was already 
in use among the fur-traders at the time of JSIackenzie's famous journey to its 
source in 1792. Mackenzie s Voy., 123. 



PEACE RIVER. 545 

river route, the continent is traversed at the lowest 
altitude existing north of the isthmus of Tehuantepec 
in a line the most direct from tlie north Atlantic to 
Cliina, and the discovery of gold placers upon Peace 
Ixiver and in Omineca foreshadowed the establishment 
of a new city on the north Pacific coast, which might 
^ome day lay claim to the terminus of the Canadian 
Pacific railway/ On this line the metalliferous axis 
of tlie Cordilleras was intersected, and found to be 
continuous in all its force to a high northern latitude. 
The evidence of prospectors established the existence 
of from eight to twenty dollar diggings.^ Even if 
the diggings were remote, the climate severe, and the 
summers short, here lay a vast extant of still super- 
ficially prospected country which possessed, and would 
be likely hereafter to maintain, the character of attract- 
ive "poor man's diggings."'^ The development of 
mining in the Omineca region must also become a 
means of populating the boundless agricultural regions 
of the north-west territory of Canada adjoining. 

The first discoveries north of Eraser Piver basin 
were made during the summer of 18G1 on Peace River, 
between the source and the passage through the Rocky 
Mountains. Two miners named Edward Carey and W. 
Crest left Quesnelmouth in the spring, simultaneously 
with the movement upon Cariboo, and proceeded by 
way of Fort George to Fort St James, thence follow- 
ing the Hudson's Bay Company's trail over the portage 
to McLeod Fort. Durino- the hioh water of June 

3 O 

^T. Ernnii, in Overland Montldy, March 1870, 204. Mr Evans recognizeil 
the Yellowhcad or Leather Pass as a ruling point from the railway to the 
Fuca Sua, but saw in the river system of Omineca the foreshailowiny of a rival 
terminus at tlie mouth of the Skeena River. 

^ After the discovery of gold in California and on Eraser River the Indians 
fref|ueutly brought nuggets and gold-dust (to the value of which their atten- 
tion was then for the first time directed) from tlieir hunting-grounds to the 
Hudson's Bay Company's ])osts in the Peace River, Omineca, and Cassiar 
region. 'Viewed in the light of recent discoveries,' said the (olnriist, during 
the excitement these Indian finds became of interest. Victoria Wcrkly Colo- 
vist, Jan. 19, 1870. 

' F. P<u,e, in Victoria Daily Colonist, Aug. 8, 1871; Id., Weekly, April 6, 
1S70; S^roat's B. C, 70. 

Hist. BniT. Col. 35 



546 GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

they descended Peace River for two hundred miles, 
passing through the canon. Keturning at low water, 
they prospected all the bars and brought with them 
to McLeod one thousand dollars in dust, the result of 
a few days' washing at one point. The largest day's 
work performed yielded $75 to each.^ After wintering 
at Quesnelmouth they repeated their journey in 
1862, accompanied by Peter Toy, Joseph Gates, and 
Ezra Evans, and obtained from fifty days' washing 
each $1,200. Nearly all the bars yielded from ten 
to fifteen dollars a day to the man, those on Finlay 
Piver for twenty miles from its mouth being the best. 
Five others followed them to Peace Piver the same 
season, four of whom working together took out in 
twelve days nearly $1,000. The gold was described 
as scaly surface gold, somewhat heavier than that of 
the Eraser Piver bars.*^ In January 1863, Pell, Gold- 
smith, and three others left Victoria for Peace Piver 
and obtained half an ounce a day to the man on almost 
every bar down to the junction of E inlay Piver. No 
excitement appears to have resulted from these dis- 
coveries, owing chiefly, no doubt, to the developments 
in the Cariboo country, which overshadowed every- 
thing else for the time. Influenced by discoveries on 
the main or southern branch of Peace Piver, a party 
of Cariboo miners reached Fort St James in 1864, and 
taking a different route, followed the canoes of the 
Hudson's Pay Company north, through Stewart and 
Tatla lakes, to a point opposite the head-waters of the 
Gmineca tributary ; thence striking over the Peak or 
Plue Mountains, they entered the Peace Piver basin 
and mined till the following year, returning home with 
four or five thousand dollars. Gne of the men, 
Michael Foy, remained behind and mined successfully 

** On a sand-bank of Finlay River about three miles above its mouth, they 
found a layer of black sand overlying gravel which yielded three to four ounces 
a day to the hand, the whole being covered by five or six feet of loose sand; 
want of provisions obliged them to leave their ground and continue up the 
river to Fort St John. Victoria Weekly Volonid, Feb. 23, 1870. 

^B. Col. Directory, I8G3, 204-5. 



OMENICA RIVER. 547 

for five years, remitting several thousand dollars to his 
daughter. ^"^ 

In 18G8 Humphreys, Gaylord, Evans, and Twelve- 
foot Davis struck Arctic Creek. Humphreys re- 
turned to Quesnelmouth the same year and endeavored 
to form a prospecting party to remain in the fields 
through 18G9 and 1870. In this effort he was aided 
by Michael Byrnes and Vitalle La Force, two ex- 
plorers in the employ of the Western Union Telegraph 
Compan}', who had wintered on tlie head-waters of 
Omineca River in 1868-9. Traders and others, hi 
view of the depressed condition of affairs at Cariboo 
and Kootenai, also favored the search for a new gold 
field, and between government and private aid twenty- 
two hundred dollars was made up to defray the ex- 
penses of the expedition. The choice for leadership 
fell upon Byrnes, with Humphreys and La Force as 
lieutenants, and Hawkins, Grant, Kelley, and several 
others as members of the company; the expedition 
being known as the 'government party,' to distinguish 
it from the 'Chapman party,' which followed in the 
same direction. Both left Quesnelmouth in the be- 
ginning of May 18G9, and were not heard from until 
October, when news arrived from the government 
expedition reporting an important discovery. Soon 
after, however, all of this party except La Force and 
Kelley returned with unfavorable reports. Byrnes 
stating that after leaving Bulkley house at the north 
end of Tatla Lake, June 9th, they turned toward the 
head of Finlay Biver, distant fifty miles, in a north- 
easterly direction, over a difficult route, on the 21st 
they found gold on a small creek, and took out tJiirty- 
five ounces from 800 feet of ground. " There is a 
narrow range," said the report, "of blue and yellow 
talcose slate, with innumerable small veins of quartz 

'" Meanwhile fur-traders continued to report ricli diggings in this region, 
and Davis and Johns, who in 18GG and 1867 traded through the country for 
furs on their own account, brought with them to Victoria a considerable 
quantity of gold-dust which they had obtained. Victoria Weekly Colonist, 
Feb. 23, 1870. 



648 GOLD DISCOVERIES IX THE FAR XORTH. " ^ 

intersecting it — general course from north-west and 
south-east . . . This range is cut off at the south fork 
of the Finlay branch (Omineca River) by a moun- 
tainous range of granite/' and ought to be prospected 
the next season, for a rush of miners at this time, it 
was urged would be unadvisable. The party found 
also a few pieces of native silver and some indications 
of copper. To their particular friends the leaders 
made a more favorable report, and Humphreys, after 
depositing on his own account in the assay ofRce at 
Barkerville seventy ounces of gold-dust, immediately 
returned to Peace River with several companions and 
a stock of supplies. These circumstances cast a sus- 
picion on the integrity of the leaders of the govern- 
ment party, whose discoveries were claimed to be 
public property; while this was under discussion at 
Quesnel and Barkerville, a letter arrived, wherein 
Ogden, the Hudson's Bay Company's agent at Stew- 
art Lake, stated that the members of the govern- 
ment party on their way back for supplies had de- 
posited $2,500 with him, and that if tools had been 
obtainable at Stewart Lake, they would not have re- 
turned to Quesnel until the end of the year ; one of 
the party having admitted, while under the influence 
of liquor, that they had taken out $8,000 in thirty- 
five days. 

Some of the Barkerville miners promptly de- 
patched two men, Kane and Sylvester, to follow the 
returning leaders to the new diggings and ascertain 
the truth. Leaving Quesnel October 30, 1869, they 
took the telegraph trail to Fort Fraser, reaching Fort 
St James in advance of the ex-government party, 
which had gone by boat up the Fraser and Stewart 
rivers. Another party of pursuers from Quesnel 
led by Black had overtaken Byrnes' boats near Fort 
George, from which point onward there was a race 
between them, in which Black with his light boat had 
every advantage. They arrived at Fort St James 
November 27th, and the Byrnes party now became 



arctic: creek. 549 

still more enraged at findin*>- themselves not only inter- 
cepted, but unmasked. Still another party from Ques- 
nel, known as Buckley's, was following by water. 
Before reaching the mines Byrnes' party overto(jk 
Sylvester and Kane lying in wait for them, and tlieir 
'intrigues and dodges' to elude the pursuers were 
unavailing. At lengtli the matter was compromised by 
an agreement under which the discoverers were permit- 
ted to stake off their own claims first. The pursuers 
were now led to the south of the Omineca Mountains 
— referred to in the government party's report as con- 
sisting of granite — instead of to the north ; to the 
Omineca tributary or south branch, instead of the 
north or main fork of Finlay Biver; and to Vitalle 
Creek, where the mining had been done.^^ Kane 
learned further in regard to the doings of the govern- 
mental party during the preceding summer, that they 
had joined forces with Chapman's party, and while 
some of them went over to Arctic Creek, discovered by 
Humphreys in 1868, the majority remained on Vitalle 
Creek, which was much richer — the total sum taken 
out being $8,000 — and a third division was kept con- 
stantly engaged in carrying provisions from Tatla 
Lake. It was finally explained that the motive for 
the secrecy was the supposed existence on Vitalle 
Creek of a wonderful silver ledge which they desired 
to discover and secure before a rush set in. 

The confirmation of the rumors thus presented, 
together with the remittance of some gold, set in full 
action the excitement which had been roused by the 
mystery surrounding Byrnes' movements,^' and it was 



^'Reports of Kane and Sylvester in Cnrihoo Sndhicl, Dec. 11 and 16, 18(59. 
Sylvester remained in charge of tlie Adair claim on Vitalle Creek, while Kane 
returned to Cariboo and reported these results of their expeilition. From 
Fort St James they had travelled Ijy boat by way of Stewart, Tremble, and 
Tatla Lakes to the lauding on the north-east side, IGJ miles from Fort St 
James, and thence in five days' journey over the mountains to Vitalle Creek. 

Virtoria Weekly Colonid, Feb. 23, 1870; Dailif Id., Dec. 31, 18G9; Cariboo 
Senthu'l, Oct. 27, 1869. 

'- In addition to the gold produced in 1869 giving rise to the excitement, 
Mr Linhart brought down to Victoria GO ounces in January 1870. Victoria 

Weekly Colonist, Feb. 2, 1870. 



550 GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

prophesied at one time that three fourths of the popu- 
lation at WiUiam Creek would leave for Omineca in 
the following spring; as it was, a considerable flow 
of miners from Cariboo and other portions of British 
Columbia, and even from California, set in for the 
diggings, Avith Vitalle Creek as the centre of attrac- 
tion. This creek, named after Vitalle La Force, who 
had been directed by trappers to seek for gold upon 
it, was already fully occupied by Vitalle and his Ques- 
nelmouth associates, besides a number of others, and 
the yield was already falling oiV^ , The first work 
had been done one and a quarter miles from its mouth 
in from two to four feet of ground, a depth which in- 
creased further up. One tenth of the metal found 
was native washed silver, partly in nuggets weighing 
as much as three ounces, John Adair obtaining thirty- 
five ounces thereof in as many days.^* 

A number of diggers had remained on the creek 
during the winter of 1869-70, but the mining opera- 
tions were not generally successful. Black and Mc- 
Martin and others bottomed a shaft to find only 
'color,' while Sylvester and Company struck slum 
and water on a sliding bed-rock at a depth of twenty- 
five feet, which obliged them to abandon their shaft. ^^ 
This was certainly not encouraging to the new ar- 
rivals, and many turned back at once, while others 
passed on to the lower tributaries.^^ Black with 
thirty or forty others prospected the adjoining valley 

^^ Allan's Cariboo, MS., 12, 13. 

^* When they ceased to find silver they ceased also to find gold. History 
of the Peace River Mines, in Victoria WeeJcly Colonist, Feb. 23, 1870. Mr 
Ogden at Stewart Lake purchased 158 ounces of Vitalle Creek gold from the 
government j)rospecting pai-ty which was worth $17.50 the ounce. It was 
mixed with lumps of silver worth a ' Lit.' Id., April 6, 1870. 

^"^ Cariboo Sentinel, in Victoria Weekly Colonist, July 20, 1870; Id., Aug. 17, 
1870. 

^*No sooner had the crowd overrun the diggings tlian numbers started 
back, abandoning their claims, and in July and August between 100 and liiO 
miners remained in the country with the determination to give the ground a 
fair trial. Peter Davis and a party left Omineca June 28th, and returned by 
way of Skeen.i River and Nanaimo by canoe. They reported that only four 
claims were paying small wages. A small piece of ground below the Discov- 
ery claim paid nine ounces in one day, after which the yield was light. Vic- 
ioria Weekly Colonist, July 27 and Aug. 17, 1870. 



GERMAXSEN. 551 

of Silver Creek in 1870, finding only two-ancI-a-hrJf- 
dollar diggings; but other prospectors were more suc- 
cessful on different streams, and later in the season 
a considerable quantity of gold was taken out in the 
aggregate, a party of fifteen Chinese making $7,000 
in three weeks, and about one hundred miners pre- 
pared to carry on their operations during the winter/^ 
This added zest to the impulse, and in 1871 the 
Omineca excitement attained its height. By the mid- 
dle of June, it was reported that eight hundred ani- 
mals had crossed Fraser River at Quesnel, mostly 
w^ith provisions, and that nine hundred men had 
arrived at the diggings, by the Fraser and Skeena 
routes/^ Operations were actively prosecuted, and 
creek after creek along the Omineca achieved more 
or less notoriety for a time, as Arctic, Quartz, ]^>Ian- 
son, Slate, Skeleton, Lost, and various others, partic- 
ularly Germansen, which now became the leading 
creek in the district. It was named after James Ger- 
mansen,^'' who discovered the first gold on the creek 
in July 18, 1870. Good shallow diggings were found 
for three miles, usually within four feet of the bed- 
rock, yielding twenty-five cents prospect to the pan, 
in clean coarse gold lying on a layer of sand tw^o feet 
beneath the gravel in the bed of the creek. Cust 
I'eported that everybody on the creek was making 
from $10 to three ounces a day, and by October $70,- 
000 had been taken out. Lumps of silver were also 
found, the largest weighing $300, and the country 
§,round was seamed with quartz. Germansen Creek, 

^'la the winter of 1870-1 several companies were running tunnels on 
Manson Creek, and 80 to 100 miners wi:iteretl in the several creeks. A dozen 
sought the forks of the Skeena for winter quarters the saine season; and 
about three dozen descended that river still further to Woodcock's Landing. 
Victoria Weekly Coloni.-il, Dec. 2 J, 1871. 

^* Sylvester, expressman, in Cari!x)o Sentinel: Victoria Daily Colonixt, June 
25, 1871. In May 1871 there were 800 miners on Germansen Creek auil more 
arriving daily. M, July 6, 1871. O'Reilly was the first gold commissioner; 
then followed Vowell. 

"Germansen was a native of St Paul, Minnesota, who came ii 1863 to 
British Columbia by way of Saskatchewan River with cat'Jj. He mined 
widi a party on Peace River iu 1GC8 and made §500. Victoria Weekly Colo- 
nist, Dec. 14, 1870. 



552 GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

in fact, surprised many by its superiority over the 
other streams.^'' 

At the junction of the creek with Omineca River 
rose a settlement spoken of as Germansen Creek town, 
or as Omineca, which during the winter contained 
eighteen inhabitants, but by the summer of 1871 
counted twenty substantial wooden houses comparing 
favorably with those at Barkerville. It was like this 
town the centre of trade for the district, supplied 
partly by the Skeeua River route, by way of Babine 
and Tatla lakes, but chiefly from Quesnelmouth 
through Port St James, whence a trail led direct to 
Germansen Creek, skirting Nation Lake. Competi- 
tion being great, freight from Yale w^as only eighteen 
cents in 1875, and flour had been sold as low as twenty 
cents a pound. ^^ 

Life alone differed from Caribob in being more iso- 
lated and remote Those who remained over winter 
were entirely cut off from the rest of the world, since 
the season in temperature if not in duration approached 
the arctic in character. The rampant life of the flush 
period in Cariboo and California found less congenial 
soil for germination in Omineca, and although saloons 
and cards flourished, the hurdy-gurdies never pene- 
trated thither.^^ In 1871 most of the miners in the 
district concentrated on the creek, and some good 
yields were reported. Three men near the mouth took 

20 W. H. Fitzgerald, Government Agent at Port St James, Oct. 24, 1870, Let- 
ter, in Victoria WeeJdy Colonist, Dec. 7, 14, 1870. Some of the claims paid 
|oO a clay to the hand. In the French Company's claim above the Canon a 
23-ounce nugget was found. Pat Kelly's Company made from .§10 to $30 a 
day to the man. Correspondence, in Jd., Nov. 30, Dec. 7, 1870. Another 
Ir.rga water-worn nujget, weighing 24.\ ounces, was brought to Victoria by 
Mr Guichon. Id., Dec. 21, 1870; Cariboo Sentinel, in Id., Nov. 16, 1870; 
Port Townsend Argus, Ang. I, 1871. 

^^ Freight from Quesuel to Manson Creek was from 10 to 15 cents, and flour 
was sold here for from 20 to 40 cents a pound. Page, iu 3Iin. Mines Pept., 
1375, 16. 

2^ Saloons, cards, fur-hunters, miners, and Hydah squaws for genre: ditches, 
drains, log-cabins, and stick forests for scenery, these made up what was 
regarded as the somewhat miserable picture of the town of Manson Creek, as 
S3en by Captain Butler in 1871. The important personages of the town were 
Grahame, postmaster, and Rufus Sylvester, expressman. Butler's Wild North 
Land, 303-8; Langevins Pept., 1872, 9-10. 



^ CLAIMS AND YIELD. 553 

out ten ounces a day to the man, and Kelly's party, 
working six miles above the Discovery claim in the 
bed of the creek, obtained one hundred dollars a day. 
But the majority made little or nothing, either because 
the rich deposits were in patches which bad fallen to 
the few, and were now nearly worked out, or because 
the lead could not be followed. When in the course 
of the summer rich discoveries were reported on ]\Ian- 
son River, fifteen miles farther down Omineca River, 
a general stampede ensued."^ Germansen Creek re- 
sumed, nevertheless, its position as the centre of the 
district upon the collapse of the rival excitements. 
Hydraulic mining was applied to the thirteen claims 
in operation in 1875, half of the whole constituted 
number worked in Omineca. Several of these paid 
fairly with the aid of wing-dams and bench-sluices, the 
best yielding $6,200 for the season, but others suffered 
not only from exhaustion, but from floods, and then 
from a want of sluice water, and were abandoned.^* 

Manson Creek diggings, fifteen miles east, and run- 
ning parallel to Germansen, were discovered in July 
1871 by R. Howell, formerly of the royal engineers, 
and yielded about twenty dollars a day, including nug- 
gets, some of them eighty and one hundred dollars. 
Two hundred miners were engaged on the creek dur- 
ing the season, working the surface of the creek-bed, 
or sluicing on the hill and bench ground ; but there 
was also a deep channel like that on William Creek, 

2' During the last week in August the creek yiehled $10,000. Paje and 
Bent, in Victoria Daily Colonist, Aug. S, Oct. 8, 1871; Lanyevin's Rcyt., 1872, 
8; VoweWs B. C. Mines, US., 13, 14. 

■" The creek claims paid well enough until June, when a flood burst upon 
the camp and washed out all the wing-dams. After these were repaired only 
a month remained for working before the long winter set in. The Keynton 
Company then lost the bed-rock and with it their pay. The < iood-as-Any 
Company ol>taiued good pay, although the lead was spotted. The hill claims 
owned by the same company prospected exceedingly well, but the water soon 
ran short and a sli.le tilled their sluices. The Morrison Company paid less 
thxn .S3 a day during the season. The Rim Rock Company, a hyilraulic 
claim having a bank from 20 to 50 feet in heiglit, paid l)ctter than any other 
claim, yieldmg .$G,200 for the season. The scarcity of water succeeding a 
flood bred discouragement, and the Reliance, Marshal, and Discovery claims 
w-re abandoned, wlule several others were sold to the Chinese. F. Pay., iu 
Mill. Mines liept., 1875, 15; Dawson on Mines, 38. 



554 GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

wherein two companies sank shafts to the bed-rock 
with profitable results. On the north bank of the 
creek, near the mouth of Slate Creek, thirty lots were 
laid out by Commissioner O'Reilly as the nucleus of a 
town, and several substantial houses were erected by 
traders and otliers.^^ The creek proved patchy, yet 
managed for some time to retain the second rank in 
the district as a gold-producer. In 1875 nine com- 
panies were working it, four of which were located on 
the slate tributary, but the following season only two 
remained."" 

Lost Creek was for some time thought to be one of 
the most flourishing of mining localities, the Irwin 
company of five men having washed out, in one week 
in 1871, 192 ounces, and another company $500 to the 
man. The creek was discovered by a company cf 
Cariboo miners who sank 50 to 70 feet and obtained 
large pay They remained here until 1875, when 
their dividend for the season amounted to only $210."^ 

Among other locations made known by the prospec- 
tors who overran Omineca was Skeleton Creek, which 
received its name from the discovery in 1871 of the 
skeletons of three white men supposed to have died 
from cold or starvation. ^^ A 'new creek' staked off 
five miles south of Vitalle Creek was never deemed 
worthy of a name. At Black Jack Gulch, five miners 
in 1871 made about $200 a day continuously. At 
Elmore Gulch the Manhattan Company mined profita- 
bly in 1874, but the following season proved a failure 
for want of sluice water. ^^ 

2^ Slate Creek, a tributary of Manson Creek, had in 1871 a mining popula- 
tion of 50 men, who were making from $5 to $20 a day. Langeviiis BepL, 
1S72, 8-10, 88. 

'^'^ Mm. Mines RepL, 1875, 15; Daivson on Mines, 38; F. Page, in Victoria 
Daily Colonist, Aug. 8, 1871; Vowell's B. C. Mines, MS., 13, 14; Allan's Cari- 
boo, MS., 12, 13; Herre, in Cariboo Sentinel, Aug. 17, 1872. 

'^'' Three hundred feet above them, where the old channel ran deeper, sev- 
eral vain attempts were made in IGTl to find bottom. Page, in Min. Mines 
Rept., 1875, 15; Herre, in Cariboo Sentinel, Aug. 17, 1872. 

28 Victoria Daily Colonist, Oct. 8, 1871. 

2* The New Zealand Company's c\i\~\ paid expenses in 1G75, and was pre- 
pared for winter woi'k. Page, io. Min. Mines Rept., 1875, 15; Langevin's Pept., 
1872, 8-9. 



SKEENA RI\rER. 655 

Fair prospects were found on the bars of Omineca 
and Finlay^" rivers near their confluence, and the latter 
stream was in 1870 prospected by a party a hundred 
miles from its mouth, revealing promising bar diggings 
as far as they went, some yielding seventy-five cents to 
the pan.^^ At the head- waters of Nation River from 
thirty to fifty miles south-east of the central Omineca 
diggings lay a cluster of auriferous creeks, which had 
been visited at one time by Peace River miners, and 
were supposed to be rich;^^ but no developments 
worth}^ of note appear to have been made.^ Parsnip 
River, further down, and Peace River itself west and 
east of the Rocky Mountains were found to contain 
gold placers, though unremunerative so far as their 
accessible deposits were explored.** 

The mining on the bars resembled that of Eraser 
River, the gold being fine and found in thin sheets, 
deposited and buried again, by massive sediments ot 
the river, out of sight of the bed-rock. The valley 
further resembled the Fraser in having a lake or fresh- 
water tertiary formation basined within it containing 
lignite coal.'^ 

The first arrivals quickly exhausted the shallow river 
bar deposits, and operations soon dwindled to noth- 
ing. On the Pacific slope of the auriferous range, 
represented by Skeena River and its tributaries, min- 
ing was never carried on to any noteworthy extent, 

'" This stream was named after James Finlay, one of the Northwest Com- 
pany's fur-traders, who in 1 7G8 started from Michillimackinac and penetrated 
to Nipawee on the Saskatcliewan in latitude 43i° north, longituile 103° west. 
JUackftnie's Vo>/., xi. lie was stationed and engaged in building a fort on 
Lower Peace River in 1792. Id. 125. 

" Peter Toy, Evans, and others prospected up Finlay River to the canon, 
a distance of eighty miles, and found gold on all the bars, in some places as 
much as seventy five cents to the pan. Just below the canon a branch joins it 
from the south, whereon Toy obtained line gold for a number of juiles. Page, 
in Mhi. Mines Rept., 1875, 15; Victoria U'rekli/ Colo)ii.<i/, Due. 7, 1870. 

^■Quosnel, March 20, 1870, cor. Victorin Weekhj Colonixt, April 6, 1870. 

" Alexander Fraser and a party prospected the head of Nation River in 
1870. Victoria WeeUy Colonist, Aug. 17, 1870. 

^* Parsnip River and Peace River east of the Rocky Mountains carried 
free gold. Vawxon on Mines, p. .39. 

^' Trutch's Map of British Columbia indicates coal at the mouth of Trout 
or Panais Rivers near latitude 55". 



556 GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

altliough prospects were found of so encouraging a 
nature as to induce parties to overrun the Babine and 
the country between the Nass and Skeena rivers; 
yet the Omineca excitement itself was sometimes 
referred to on account of its geographical position as 
tlie Skeena River excitement. Near the coast, Mof- 
fatt of the Hudson's Bay Company found at Moiiatt 
Bivcr, fifteen miles north of the Skeena and twelve 
miles south of the Nass, an extensive deposit of black 
sand containing gold of the size of number four shot, 
and the steamer Wright early in 1871 reported the 
discovery of new diggings at or near the same 
locality.=^« 

Omineca district certainly failed to justify the ex- 
pectations formed of it in more than one respect; 
the peaceful conquest of the country by the gold- 
seekers' predecessors, the pioneers in quest of furs, 
had been unattended by immigration; for seventy 
years the country had remained without roads or 
other notable improvements beyond the erection of a 
few trading stations with gardens, and the perfecting 
of natural routes of communication by cutting trails 
over portages between the canoe termini. Mackenzie 
neither saw nor heard from the Indians of the exist- 
ence of the precious metal in the bars of Peace River 
during his laborious ascent of that stream. With the 
new influx of miners a new era was to be expected. 
Towns would be built, pack-trails and roads would be 
opened into the mountains and outlying districts, 
fields would be planted for the sustenance of the 
communities henceforth dependent directly upon the 
resources and identified with the history of the coun- 
try, and Omineca would become the nucleus for settle- 
ments extending even east of the Rocky Mountains. 
For the first time in the history of the country, the 
imaginary line of Fifty-four Forty, the shibboleth of 
the party in power at Washington in 1845, assumed 

36 Victoria Weel-li/ Colonist, Aug. 17, 1870, Feb. 12, 1871: B. C. Shetchts, 
MS., p. 5 



OMINECA GOLD. 557 

the definiteness of realty, though its actual signifi- 
cance was simply that of the natural water-shed 
boundary between the Fraser and Peace river basins, 
rendered noteworthy in being crossed by the advanc- 
ing wave of population of the Pacific coast. Beyond 
that water-shed no other power than England ever 
claimed dominion. But these visions melted away as 
soon almost as they were formed, and with them the 
fame of the pioneer prospectors of whom nothing of 
note is recorded thereafter.^^ 

The season of the great influx proved unfavorable; 
the water remained so long at a high level that only a 
few weeks' work could be done, and the yield as a con- 
sequence was not very attractive. Langevin estimated 
the product for Omineca in 1871 at $400,000 dis- 
tributed among 1,200 people, and Ireland, the express- 
man, at $80,000 or $90,000 only, up to September, most 
of which had passed over to the traders, he said, to 
pay for supplies which owing to the length and diffi- 
culty of the route were very dear.^^ Besides climatic 
and geographical drawbacks including freshets and 
the subsequent dwindling of sluice water, there were 
obstacles in connection with the tracing of the lead 
and the separation of the metal. A peculiarity of the 
diggings on Omineca Biver was that native gold and 

'' Samtiel Goldsmith, one of the Peace River miners of 1863, resided at 
Barken-ille in 1870. Victoria Weekly Colonist, Feb. 23, 1870. Peter Toy, one 
of the pioneers of 1SG2, was still mining in the fall of ISGG on the bars of 
Finlay River. New Westminster Examiner, !May 11, 1867. 'Peace River 
Smith' was a resident of the town of Gcrmansen Creek in 1871. Butler's Wild 
North Land, 307. ' Bill Parker, Jim May's companion to Peace River,' was 
at Colville, W, T., in 1865 and ' very well oflF.' Victoria Weekly Colonist, Aug. 
1, 1865. 

*^ Langevin gives $300,000 as the known yield and adds the remainder. 
Puh. Works Dept. liept., 1872, 8-10. In October 120 miners returned on the 
Otter to Victoria with only §10,000. Some ascribed the general want of success 
to the lateness of the season, to high water, and the great cost of provisions. 
Six or seven hundred men still remained in the diggings in October, while 
200 or 300 were making preparations to remain over winter. D. Eckstein, in 
U. S. Commercial Rel., 1871, 640; Victoria Daily Colonist, Oct. 4, 1871. George 
Bent arrived at Victoria in October witli §8,000 of Omineca gold. I<1., Oct. 
8, 1871. On the steamer Otter in December, 33 of the passengers were 'flat 
broke' and had free passage. Some of them pronounced Omineca a failure, 
while others spoke favorably of the diggings. Victoria Weekly Colonist, Dec, 
25, 1871. 



558 GOLD DISCOVERIES IX THE FAR NORTH. 

silver ran together in the j^lacers, worn by fluviatile 
agencies into particles and nuggets of the same size. 
The gold resembled that of Keithley Creek in size, 
shape, and weight, but was not quite so bright.^^ The 
silver was not alloyed with the gold but nearly pure, 
worth $20,000 to" the ton, and usually water- worn and 
rounded though occasionally rough. The admixture 
was found on analysis to be a small percentage of 
mercury, consequently a native amalgam.*" 

Ten per cent of the metal washed out of the placers 
on Vitalle Creek was silver, and when the miners 
ceased to find this metal they also ceased to find gold. 
Although the field was large, the deposits were too 
patchy and thin to afford satisfactory returns to all; 
nor was there sufncient inducement to pursue deep 
mining to any extent, although deeper channels of 
older streams had been found here as elsewhere. All 
this could not fail to accelerate the exodus which set 
in on the approach of winter, and in 1872 the re- 
maining population of Omineca received a compara- 
tively small accession. The yield for the season was 
estimated by the gold commissioner at $8 a day to 
the man. The miners decreased in number year by 
year, and in 1875 there were ordy C8 persons left, who 
produced from 2G claims $32,000." In 1876 the yield 
was so insignificant tliat the minister of mines left 
the district entirely out of consideration, and after 
this only a few miners remained striving to eke out 
an existence during the short season allotted.*' Omi- 
neca was not, however, the only hope of this northern 
region, for beyond it had risen another mining field,*^ 

^' Victoria Daily Colonist, Nov. 4, 1869. It was rich orange in color like 
that of Leech River, Id., March 2, 1870. 

*" Victoria Weehj Coloimt, March 2, 1870; Dawson on Mines, 14-15. 

^^On CTermaiisen Creek in 1875 there were 13 claims; on Slate Creek, 4; 
on Hanson River, Lost Creek, etc., 9; total, 26 claims, employing 49 white 
and 16 Chinese miners. All were bar and creek diggings. Min. Mines liept., 
1875, 14, 15; Sproat'sB. C, 76; Guide B. C, 1877-8, 94^5. 

*■' Vowell's B. G. Mines, MS., 13, 14. 

*^Ever since the Queen Cliarlotte Island gold excitement in 1851-2, slight 
gold-finds had been reported from there at intervals, whicli tended to keep 
this region before the public, without causing an actual movement of gold- 



CASSIAR AND STIKEEN. 559 

which promised to more than compensate for her de- 
cHne, and this was tlie Cassiar district, also known as 
Stikoen River district, since the first gold excitement 
had centred on this stream. 

In the autumn of 1861 a French Canadian by the 
name of Choquette ascended the river with some 
Indians for one hundred and fifty miles, and found 
good prospects which continued to improve during the 
additional forty miles of his ascent. Every bar showed 
more or loss of the gold which resembled that of 
Eraser River in being fine and difficult to wash on 
the lower bars, while it increased in coarseness toward 
the head-waters. The valley soil was also everywhere 
impregnated with specks to an altitude of 2,000 feet. 
The reports hereof created no little excitement, and 
despite the attractions of Cariboo, over 800 men set 
out for the district in the spring. Only a little over 
half the number had the courage, however, to face 
the hardships of the ascent to the gold-field, and their 
expectations hardly met with the results that they 
deserved. Of the bars below the canon only Car- 
penter Bar proved good, the average j^ield being from 
ten to twenty dollars a day, though a few miners 
made as much as three ounces ; but in the canon nearly 
100 miles in extent and on the north branch, the 
patchy coarser gold again prospected ten to fifteen 
dollars a day in a number of places, while the head- 
waters looked most promising; still the average pay 
was not large, and the mining population remained 
small, partly for want of ready communication and 
supplies. The river despite its sloughs and currents 
proved navigable during several months of the 3'ear 
for lioiit-drauQfht steamers as far as Shakesville, 170 
miles from its mouth, and to this point the Flying 

seekers; but in 1859 a nugget, partially composed of quartz ami -Heighing 14^ 
ounces, valued at §250, was ol)tained from the islanders antl exlubited at 
Victoria. An effort was tlien made to form a prospecting expedition to the 
island; to which tlie Hudson's Bay Company lent their aid; but a sufficient 
number of men failed to subscriljc towards it, and it was aljandoued. Victoria 
Gazette, March 22, ilay 3 and 7, 1859; B. 0. Papers, ii. 70. 



560 GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

Dutchman, Captain Moore, made several trips; but 
the canon which began twenty miles beyond this place 
could not be entered by canoes even during low water, 
except at great risk. This part of the country was 
besides arid, owing to the summer droughts, and filled 
with washed gravel hills and masses of lava and ba- 
saltic rocks, producing nothing but straggling bushes. 
Lower down,, however, timber existed suitable for 
boat-building.*^ The efforts to establish a gold-field 
did not, therefore, achieve success, and mining was for 
years followed only by odd prospecting parties. 

In 1872, however, the intrepid Thibert who had left 
Minnesota in 1869 with one companion on a hunting 
expedition in this direction, found gold in the Rocky 
Mountains on one of the Mackenzie tributaries, near 
Dease Lake. After wintering on Stikeen River they 
returned in company with one JMcCulloch^^ to Dease 
Lake to prospect its creek waters, and found a deposit 
yielding as much as two ounces of rough gold a day. 
The gold lay on a slate or bed-rock or black rock within 
one or three feet of the surface. On one creek, named 
after Thibert, the party took up three claims, and in 
the course of the season they were joined by some 
thirty men who all wintered on the ground. Good 
prospects were also obtained on Dease Creek, which 
enters the lake near Thibert's outlet, and up Laird 
River on McDame and Sayyea*^ tributaries. 

Reports of these finds were eagerly listened to by 
the desponding miners in southern districts, and dur- 
ing the following seasons a large influx took place, 
so that in 1875 about one thousand men were occupied 
in the district chiefly on creeks named.*' On Dease 

^'^ Portland Bulletin, Feb. 13, Jan. 15, May 7, July 21, 1874; Walla Walla 
Intel, Feb. 20, 1874; B. C. Directory, 1863, 230-8; Victoria Colonid, Jan. 
5, 1862. 

*^ The Cassiar gold mines were discovered by another man named McCuUoch, 
who subsequently lost his life in the pursuit, ani others who crossed over from 
the other side of the Rocky Mountains. Voirell's B. C. Mines, MS., 14. 

"Named after its discoverer. Min. Mines liept., 1875, 7-9; B. C. Gidue, 
1877-8, 90-1; Ohjrnpia Echo, Sept. 3, 1874; TarhelVs Vic, MS., 8, 9. 

*^ ' The population estimated here I conclude to be about 800 whites, 80 
Chinamen, and 200 Indians exclusive of the Cassiar natives, i. e., in the 



SAYYEA CREEK. 56) 

and Tlilbort creeks nearly all the miners were doino; 
well, taking out from one to tliree ounces to the man, 
while some claims were yielding even better. McDame 
Creek was occupied by about three hundred miners, 
but the ground was more patchy, and the dams had 
been more exposed to slides and freshets; those, how- 
ever, who had maintained their dams were turning 
out as much as two hundred ounces a week, and 
proving the richness of the creek. 

On Sayyea Creek the return averaged ten dollars 
a day in coarse gold, with nuggets weighing nearly 
thirty dollars, and the most glowing anticipations 
were formed. The value of the ground was perhaps 
best demonstrated by the returns, which for 1875 
amounted to nearly $1,000,000, and for 1874 to but 
little less.^^ This result did not fail to have its eflect, 
for the next season witnessed an influx still larger 
than before, amounting to fully 1,700 men, a great 
part of whom came with no definite purpose and 
remained idlers, while the rest assisted in extending 
the district by means of new developments. By this 
time it had been learned from the damage effected by 
the early summer floods that the early spring with its 
low Avater preceding the freshets was the best time for 
working the diggings, despite the trouble in cutting 

mining portion of the district. Probably 200 whites may be added to the 
above estimate and form the total ])opulation of Cassiar.' Min. Mines liepL, 
1875,5. 

^'^ ' It is now well established that Dease, Thibert's, and McDame 's creeks 
have yielded in two seasons nearly $2, 000, 00 J, and the two latter streams 
will, undoubtedly, produce far more in the future tlian the}' have yet done. 
Three other streams have been prospected, tributaries of Dease River and De 
Liard, and gold in paying quantities has been found upon each.* Andrews' 
claim on Dease t'reok yioldod 500 ounces in one week, and on McDame Creek 
the Discovery Company washed out 170 ounces in one week and 200 ounces 
the next. On Quartz Creek, a tributary of McDame, ' Mr McLoughlau and 
party of two others, for one day's washing took out §50. Some have great 
faith in these creeks, while others doubt their richness. There are sixteen 
men at present prospecting tliese creeks. The gold obtained is of a rough, 
not water-worn appearance, and quartz veins may be traced in various places 
in that vicinity. ' On Sayyea Creek, Sayyea's party of four took out ' for 115^ 
days' work, 77 3-16 ounces, making an average to each man pur day of $10.80, 
nearly. T)ie gold abstracted tlierefrom is coarse and seems to be of excellent 
quality; some pieces weigh, respectively, S28, -SI 8, $17, and a number of pieces 
average about $10.' Min. Mims H'l^t., 1875, 4, 7. 
IIisT. Brit. Col. 36 



562 GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

ice and removing snow.^^ During the winter tunnel- 
ling was the rule and the dirt was collected for sum- 
mer washing. Owing to the extreme cold it was often 
necessary to thaw the drift. ^^ By this season unfortu- 
nately much of the old ground on Thibert, McDame, 
and other creeks had been skimmed of its riches, and 
the new discoveries failed to prove of any extent, so 
that the yield for 1876 fell to a httle over $500,000." 
Among the new discoveries were Snow Creek, a 
tributary of the McDame, which yielded as much as 
$50 a day to the man, but for a time only; the Tako 
country, 100 miles north-west of Dease Creek, and 
the head-waters of the Stikeen, which promised to 
afford an opening for the many disappointed men. 
The diggings on Sayyea Creek on the other hand, 
which held out so many hopes, dwindled into very poor 
ground, and the Liard itself had raised great expec- 
tations in 1875, by turning out a nugget of seventeen 
dollars, but the prospectors who were led by this find 
came back disheartened in the following season. ^^ 

*^ ' The damage on Dease Creek so far has been immense; the melted snow 
coming down that coarse in torrents, tore away all the wing-dams, the tim- 
bers of which lie floating on Dease Lake; a much to be regretted loss of hardy 
miners' enterprise and industry. The damage, I am of opinion, §50,000 
would not repair. ' Min. Mines Rept., 1875, 4. 

^^ ' So extreme is the cold that it is found necessary at times to roll large 
heated bowlders into the tunnel's mouth in order to thaw out the frozen ground. 
In one tunnel of 120 feet at 40 feet down, the ground was found to be frozen.' 
VowelVs Brit. Col. Mines, MS., 17. 

^1 Dease Creek, $100,300; Thibert Creek, $139,720; McDameCreek, §163,- 
700; total, $463,720; to which may be added 20 per cent for other ground, 
making a total of $550,474 for Cassiar district. This amount must be dis- 
tributed among perhaps 1,800 men. 'Some 350 on Dease Creek Chinamen 
included, about 400 on Thibert Creek and its tributaries, between 700 and 800 
in the vicinity of McDame Creek,, and several parties prospecting in other 
portions of the district. ' ' The imexpected, and from the results of the past two 
seasons, the unjustifiable rush to Cassair this spring in a measure accounts for 
the general depression which affects alike the miner, the merchant, and the 
packer. Such an influx instead of helping the district has had the contrary 
effect.' Alin. Mines EepL, 1870, 411-12, 416-17. 

^- 'On Quartz Creek a great deal of prospecting is being done, but as yet 
no definite idea can be formed as to its richness or otherwise. A discovery 
has been made in a place called Pleasant Valley, about two and one half miles 
from Snow Creek, and very nice gold taken out. It prospected .$22.50 to 140 
buckets. On McDame Creek very few creek claims have been prospected, 
owing to the amount of water constantly in that stream.' Min. Mines Rept., 
1876, 412. A number of miners returning with considerable gold from Cassiar, 
including Gold Commissioner Sullivan, sank with the steamer Pac//ic in 1876. 
VoweWs B. C. Mines, MS., 15. 



A HUNDRED GOLDEN STREAMS. 563 

The natural result was that the population for 
1877 did not exceed 1,200, about one third of whom 
were Chinese; but the prospecting was carried on 
even more vigorously than before, with good results, 
and the excellent showing of the benches on Thibert 
as well as McDame creek gave promise of a bright 
future, and this was the more a matter of congratu- 
lation, since the creek claims had not only been pretty 
well explored, but were accessible for only a very 
short season. 

The north forks of the McDame also assisted to 
restore to this creek its prestige, as did the discovery 
on the Walker tributary, entering near its mouth, of 
twenty -dollar prospects in granulated gold. Gold 
quartz had been found on this main creek, largely 
mixed with copper and lead; and on the Liard a lode 
of argentiferous galena had been explored to some 
extent; but the failure of the quartz operations at 
Glenora on Stickeen head-waters showed that the 
miners were not as yet prepared for this branch of 
mining. 

The yield for the season was placed at $500,000, 
and this, in view of the smaller number of miners and 
the severe freshets, which rendered the creeks un- 
workable till the middle of August, may be regarded 
as more favorable than the result for 1876.^^ The 
supplies for the district were in part brought by way 
of Fort Eraser, but chiefly up the Stickeen and by 
pack trains. The centre of trade was at Laketown, 
on Dease Creek, where several substantial business 
houses had risen, and whence quite a fleet of boats 

5' « Dease Creek, $81,300; Thibert Creek, 8173,700; McDame Creek, $144,- 
800; amount taken out of which no definite returns could be procured, say 
§45,000, which, with the sum of $55,000 allowed for the probable yield from 
the di.te upon which the statistics were completed until the 31st of December 
next, will bring the gross amount to §400,830. Dease Creek suffered most 
from the incessant rains, and the returns from that creek are in consequence 
iiw below what they otherwise would have been. The majority of claims in 
that creek have been transferred to the Chinese.' Min. Mines liepL, 1877, 
400-1. Cassiar as a consequence assumed greater strength, and the following 
season the population again approached the figure of 1876. VoxcdVs B. V. 
Mines, 16; B. C. Guide, 1877-8, 88-90. 



504 GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTH. 

departed every week over Dease Lake in the direction 
of the various creeks and rivers connecting with its 
waters.^* In 1877 the gold commissioner was able 
to report the opening of land for the cultivation of 
cereals and vegetables, with results that promised to 
render the district independent in some degree of out- 
side markets. ^^ 

** 'Prices in 1875 at Laketown were: flour per lb., 25 cents; bacon per lb., 
50 cents; sugar per lb., 45 cents. In 1877, flour per lb., 20 cents; bacon 
per lb., 45 cents; sugar per lb., 45 cents.' Min. Mines Kept., 1875, 5; 1877, 
402. 

*^ The lakes and streams were besides rich in fish, and game abounded. 
VoweU's B. a Mines, MS., 21; Min. Mines Eept., 1877, 402. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

COAL. 

CoAL-BE.\Ki>"G Formations East and West — Califoknia, Oregon, and 
Washington Fields Compared — British Columbia Coal-bearing 
Formations — Bituminous, Lignite, and Anthracite — Brown's Lo- 
calities—Richardson's Trough — Beaver Harbor— Quatsino Har- 
bor- Nanaimo— The Nanaimo Coal Company — The Vancouver Com- 
pany — The Wellington Company — Progress of Development at 
Nanaimo — Dunsmuir's Adventures — The Nanaimo Stone Quarry — 
The Harewood Mine — Workings of the V.\ncouver Colliery — 
Queen Cii^vrlotte Islands Anthracite — Attempted Development op 
THE Mines — Brown and Richardson's Visits — Claudet and Lsher- 
wood's Analyses — Comox and Bayne Sound — Developments — Dis- 
coveries ON THE ]\IaINLAND — MINISTERS* REPORTS — STATUTORY REGU- 
LATIONS — Summary. 

In connection with the estabhshing of forts Rupert 
and Xanaimo^ I have given a full account of the 
earliest coal discoveries in British Columbia. I will 
now briefly glance at later developments, begging 
the reader meanwhile to remember that it is the 
history of coal and the development of the coal inter- 
ests of the countr}^ rather than technical descriptions 
or analyses that I am attempting to write. 

The coals and lignites of western Xorth America 
are found, as a rule, in formations different from those 
in which they occur at the east ; the secondary and 
tertiary rocks, at various horizons, in the west, taking 
the place, as coal-producing formation, of the carbon- 
iferous strata of the east. 

Between California and Alaska are three distinct 
coal sections belonging to three distinct geologic for- 
mations respectively; the tertiary, extending through 

'See chapter xi., this volume 

(5C5) 



5G6 COAL. 

Oregon and Washington; the cretaceous, covering, 
for the most part, Vancouver Island ; and the cretaceo- 
jurassic existing chiefly in Queen Charlotte Islands. 
California has little to boast of in the way of coal 
deposits of economic importance. True, in the Coast 
Range, and in many places along the Sierra Foot- 
hills, from one end of the state to the other, coal is 
found scattered ; but usually in such small quantities 
and of such poor quality or so unfavorably situated as 
to be of little value.^ Actual developments in Oregon 
are not so far in advance of those in California, as are 
the possibilities of Oregon superior to those of Cali- 
fornia.^ Expectation, however, seems thus far pri- 
marily to have been directed to Washington and 
British Columbia, and that with fair success.* The 
rule seems to be that as we follow the coast north- 
ward the quality improves.^ 

In British Columbia only we find thus far beanng 
coal the three formations ; on Vancouver Island and 
the coast adjacent, two tertiary rocks with bitu- 
minous coal and lignite, and cretaceous rocks with 

^ Even of the Monte Diablo field, the only one which has thus far assumed 
any considerable degree of financial importance in the state, W. A. Goodyear, 
after devoting some sixty pages of his Coal Mines of the Western Coast to its 
description, finally concludes ' that the days of the old Mt Diablo mines are 
numbered.' Likewise as to Oregon, which in respect of mineral fuels he 
regards as next least in importance to California, he devotes considerable 
space, although the only mines worked with profit, he says, are at Coos Bay, 
and these are not of extraordinary value. This was a safe assertion, tlie 
Coos Bay mines being the only ones in Oregon upon which work to any con- 
siderable extent had been done at the time of his writing. 

^ No doubt the opening of mines on the lower Columbia has been retarded 
by Portland capitalists, jealous of the building of a new metropolis in that 
quarter. Many have expressed the opinion that the coal resources of Oregon 
are equal to those of Washington. 

* ' It is unquestionably to the mines of "Washington Territory, and of Brit- 
ish Columbia, that this Pacific Coast nuist look hereafter, both for its chief 
domestic and its nearest and most reliable foreign siajjplies of that indispensa- 
ble necessity of all civilized communities — a good article of coal.' Goodyear s 
Coal Mines of the Western Coast, p. 153. 

* In the endeavor to establish the comparative value of fuels for steam- 
raising purposes, the United States war department give the following esti- 
mate: One cord of good oak wood was found equal to 1,800 lbs. Nanaimo, 
2,200 lbs. Bellingham Bay, 2,400 fts. Seattle, 2,500 tos. Rocky Mountain, 2,600 
lt)s. Coos Bay, or 2,600 lbs. j\lonte Diablo coal. The average composition of 
Vancouver Island coals as deduced from his analysis is given by Harrington 
as follows: Water, L47; volatile combustible matter, slow coking, 28.19, fast 
coking, 32.69; fixed carbon, slow coking, 64.05, fast coking, 59.55; ash 6.29. 



KIND AND QUALITY. 5G7 

bituminous coal, and on Queen Charlotte Islands 
lower cretaceous, or cretaceo-jurassic rocks holding- 
anthracite." 

Robert Brown locates the secondary coals of Van- 
couver Island in the following order, proceeding north- 
ward : In the Chenianis district near the river of 
that name ;" at the De Courcy Islands, on one of which 
a seam two feet in thickness was found; at Nanaimo, 
where cretaceous coals attain the fullest develop- 
ment; at Baynes Sound and vicinity; at Sukwash, 
near Fort Bupert, and across the Island, following a 
coal basin, to Quatsino Sound. ^ 

James Richardson, on behalf of the geological sur- 

^ The most scrutinizing and able exposition of British Columbia coals, in 
my opiuiou, is given by George M. Dawson in the Canadian Pacific Bailway 
Beporl, reprinted in pamphlet form. Of western anthracitic coals he says: 
' Valuable coal deposits may, however, yet be found in the carboniferous for- 
mation proper of the far west; and where, as on some parts of the west co^st, 
the calcareous rocks of this age are largely replaced by argillaceous and are- 
naceous beds, the probability of the discovery of coal is greatest. I believe, 
indeed, that in a few localities in Nevada, coal shales, used to some extent o.i 
fuel in the absence of better, are found in rocks supposed to be of this age. 
The discovery of certain fossils in 1876 in the limestones of the lower Cache 
Creek group now allow these, and probably also the associated cpiartzites and 
other rocks to be correlated with tins period; and it is wortliy of mention 
that black shales, with a considerable percentage of anthracitic carbon, occur 
in connection with tliese in several places, and may yet be found in some parts 
of their extension, to become of economic value. Mr Richardson has also 
found small fragments of true anthracite in rocks which are very probably of 
this age, on the shores of Cowitchin Bay; and inland, seams of anthracite, with 
regard to which nothing certain is yet known, are reported to exist.' And 
again: ' Rocks of the same age with the coal-bearing series of the Queen Char- 
lotte Islands are proba1)ly present also on the Alaiidand, where fossils indicat- 
ing a horizon both somewhat higher and a little lower in the geological scale 
have already been found, and apparently occur in different parts of a great 
conformable rock series, though this cannot yet be confidently stated. 
These rocks are extensively developed on the eastern flank of tlie Coast Range, 
near the heatl-waters of both branches of the Homathco, and probably occur 
in considerable force, with a similar relation to this axis of disturbance 
throughout its length, as the explorations of last summer have led to the dis- 
covery of rocks near the same horizon, on the Iltasyouco and Salmon rivers, 
in latitude 52° 50'.' Dawson on Mines, 17-19; Hep. Can. Pac. R. P., 1877, 
227-34. 

' ' Coal has been bored for here; but I am not aware that, so far as the 
sinkings have progressed, the seams have been passed through.' Broirns Cod 
Hell 1.1, 10. This was prior to 18u9. The same paper is given in the Transac- 
tions of the Edinhimjh Ceol. Soc, 1SG8-9. 

* See Brown's map in PtUrmann's Geog. Mitlheilungen, 18G9, and Ad.i.i- 
rally Chart, No. 1719. ' It is no exaggeration, indeed, to say that coal exists all 
along tlie shores of botli colonies; and when any of the inlets become of sulli- 
cient importance to make the work remunerative, there is no dmd)t it will be 
found in working position and sulliciout t^uaatities.' Alaynes B. C, 380. 



568 COAL. 

vey of Canada, examined the southern part of the 
eastern shore of Vancouver Island m 1871. Between 
Cape Mudge and within fifteen miles of Victoria 
there appeared to extend a narrow trough in which 
coal seams were apparent in twelve or fifteen dif- 
ferent places, in five of which were held divers claims 
by their respective companies. 

At Comox Harbor several claims, prominent among 
which was that belonging to the Union Coal Mining 
Company, were taken up about 1870.^ North-west 
from the Union and not far distant, several seams 
were discovered and reported by P. J. Leech in 1864. 
Sixteen miles from Comox Harbor, in the same direc- 
tion and near the coast, was a seam four feet in width. 
Near Comox was the Beaufort mine, where was good 
hard coal, the seam being three feet and more in 
width. It was situated on the left bank of Bradley 
Creek, down which, half a mile, a seam appeared, and 
half a mile further another seam. These were dis- 
covered by Henry Bradley, one of Bichardson's men, 
and upon examination proved to be from one to two 
feet wide. Westward from the point last named, one 
and a half miles on Trent Biver, was a seam nine feet 
in thickness. Not far distant Vv-ere the Perseverance 
and the Baynes Sound claims/'' To the Comox Basin 
he gave a length of sixty-four miles, or if limited to 
Kookooshun Point and the Qualicum Biver, forty 
miles. 

I have elsewhere in this volume noticed the first 
intelligence conveyed by the natives to the ofiicers of 

® Here is ' an almost perpendicular cliff, which rises on the north side of a 
small brook, tributary to the Puntluch River,' where occur coal seams in 
descending sections. ' None of the seams in this locality have yet been opened 
for productive woi-king.' Ricliardson, in liept. Geol. Sur. Canada, 1871-2, 76-7. 

^" ' On the coast no rocks are seen from the path leading to the Baynes 
Sound claim all the way to Qualicum River, a distance, in a general south- 
eastward course, of sixteen miles. But on Denman Island, lying on the north- 
east side of Baynes Sound, there is a continiious exposure for ten miles, which 
is nearly the whole length of the island, in an escarpment rising up from ten 
to seventy feet, and running pretty much with the strike. lUcliardson, in 
Mept. Geol. Sur. Canada, 1871-2, 79. 



— BEAVER AND NAXAIMO HARBORS. 5G9 

the Hudson's Bay Company of tlie existence of coal 
in the vicinity of Beaver and Nanaimo harbors, and 
tJie knowledge of outcroppings elsewhere. Work at 
Bupert was begun but soon ceased, the deposits being 
too scattering, but at Nanaimo coal-mining developed 
into large proportions. The coal at Fort Rupert still 
continued to attract the curiosity of strangers. The 
Plumper in 18G0 gathered specimens which were pro- 
nounced by Mayne "quite equal to the Nanaimo coal; 
and the Indians brought some from the Mainland 
opposite, which was also very good." 

Some work was done at Quatsino Harbor by the 
Hudson's Bay Company, but the seam opened being 
but eighteen inches in thickness, the venture w^as 
soon abandoned as unprofitable.^^ 

The Hudson's Bay Company continued to work 
the coal seams of Nanaimo, under the designation of 
the Nanaimo Coal Company, until 18G1, when they 
sold the mines to a number of Ens^lish s^entlemen, 
who associated under the name of The Vancouver 
Coal Mining and Land Company, Limited,^^ the mines 
thereafter becoming popularly known as the Van- 
couver Colliery. The company's land embraced 6,000 
acres. A marked improvement in working the mines 
was soon discovered under the new company. New 
machinery was brought from England; new shafts 
were sunk; the facilities for loading vessels were in- 
creased by wharves, jetties, and barges. The Douglas, 
Newcastle, and Dunsmuir veins were now all success- 
fully worked, the first mentioned particularly so, with 
constant improvement in the quality, until competent 
judges pronounced the Douglas vein but little inferior 
to the best Welsh coal.^^ From the Dunsmuir mine 

^^ Pemhertona V. /., 47. 'Coal has been found in this inlet of the same 
character apparently as that at Fort Rupert and Nanaimo, and will some day 
be workcil to advantage. ' Forhcn L'ssa;/, "20. 

'■■'Capital £100,000 in 10,000 shareVof ilO each. Directors, Hon. Mr Jus- 
tice Halil)urton, (iooigeCampl)cll, C. \V. W. Fitzwilliani, Josephy Fry, James 
v. H. Irwin, and Prileaux Sclby. Resident manager at Nanaimo in 18G3, 
C. J. Nicol; and in 1877, Mark Bate. 

'Ulowardaminarnett'sVircct., 1863, 144; HibbensB. C. Guide, 337; Daw- 
son on Mines, TJ. 



570 COAL. 

that is to say DunsmrJr, Diggle, and Company, or 
the Welhngton, situated three miles south-west from 
Departure Bay, several hundred tons were taken 
about 1866-7. 

Under the management of practical men and an 
abundance of capital, the works at Naniamo progressed 
favorably. Indeed, it is noticeable than whenever the 
Hudson's Bay Company stepped aside from fur-trading, 
failure almost always followed — instance the early 
efforts at the Red Biver settlement, and the agricul- 
tural speculations of the Puget Sound Company at 
the Cowlitz and Nisqually/* 

When on the coast, tlie steam-sloop Plumper coaled 
at Nanaimo in December 1857.^^ Mayne reports along 
the shore ''the colliery buildings, and about a dozen 
remarkably sooty houses inhabited by the miners and 
the few Hudson's Bay Company's officers here. There 
is a resident doctor in the place, who inhabits one of 
these houses, and to the left of them stands the com- 
pany's old bastion, on which are mounted the four or 
five honey-combed twelve-pounders with which the 
great fur company have been wont to awe the neigh- 
boring Indians into becoming respect and submis- 



^* 'They mismanaged affairs at Nanaimo, certainly.' Mayne' s B. C, 382. 
Keportiug aboiit 1860, Nicol, the manager, remarks: 'We have got the coal 
ill a bore nearly five feet thick. I have now fully proved 1,000,000 tons. A 
shaft 50 or 52 fathoms deep will reach the coal; dip 1 in 7; a very good work- 
ing seam. I have no doubt there is another seam underlying this one, of an 
inexhaustible extent. I have got the outcrop inland, and from dip to strike, 
I am sure it is about 30 fathoms below; so that by continuing the same shaft, 
if necessary, another large seam containing millions will be arrived at; but 
the first seam will last my life, even with very large works. With about 
£5,000 or £8,000 I could get along well, and start a business doing from 
60,000 to 100,000 tons a year. The price is 25*. to 28.s. alongside the ship.' 
Says Bauermann, geologist of the boundary expedition: 'Two seams of coal, 
averaging six or eight feet each in thickness, occur in these beds, and are ex- 
tensively worked for the supply of the steamers running between Victoria and 
Fraser River. The coal is a soft black lignite, of a dull earthy fracture, iuter- 
Bpersed with small lenticular bands of bright crystalline coal, and resembles 
some of the duller varieties of coal produced in the south Derljyshire and 
other central coal-fields in England. ' 

^^ ' The only spot in the Island where the coal is worked, although it appears 
in several other places.' Maine's B. C, 35. 

^^ He complains that the coal was ' excessively dirty. ' A fine cut of Nanaimo 
is given by Mayne, Brii. Col. , 35, showing the fort and the coal-works with 
the row of cottages on the bank, and a vessel loading coal at a wharf. 



PROGRESS AT NAXAIMO. 571 

Captain Richards of tlie Plumjoer, reports to the 
governor of Vancouver Island in October 1858: "A 
good pier has lately been built, alongside of which 
vessels may lie and coal with great facility. As much 
as one hundred and fifty tons have been taken by one 
vessel in a day, and several vessels together might 
take in the same quantity. Several thousand tons 
are ready for shipping, and the miners easily keep 
that quantity on hand." James Hector, geologist 
under Palliser, 1859, writes: "Already it is exten- 
sively used by the British navy on that station, and it 
was found to require only a slight modification in the 
method of feeding the fires to make it highly effective 
as a steam-generator." ^' 

Pemberton says there were fifty buildings and two 
steam-engines at Nanaimo in 1860. According to 
Forbes tliree mines were being worked in 18G2, New- 
castle Island, Number Three Pit, and Parkhead Level 
and Slope. ^^ 

For the further advancement of the coal interest 
thus everywhere appearing, an ordinance was issued 
in 1869, under which by special license any person 
or association mio-ht seek for coal for the time desio:- 
nated, and if successful obtain a crown grant for the 
land under certain conditions. The prospecting license, 
for which a small fee was paid, entitled the holder to 
exclusive rights of search within prescribed hniits. 
Tlie desired grant of land was obtained on these term.i, 
follov/ing Anderson: "For any quantity up to and 
including one thousand acres, at the price of five dol- 
lars per acre, provided always that on proof to the sat- 
isfaction of the government that the sum of $10,000 
has been beneficially expended on any land held under 
prospecting license for coal, a grant of one thousand 

I'See London Quar. Jour., Geo'j. Soc., Xov. ISGO; McDonakVs B. C, 
3G9-73. 

''^From ■which three mines for the year eiuling April 18l>0, 14,455 tons 
were taken l»y 173 vessels; the year following 1.3,900 tons were raised. 
Price §G or §7; nunilwr of men at this time eniployeil 118. Sea Forbts Eisay, 
18, 20, 57-8, 02; Rattray s V. I., 89, 102; McDonald's Lecture, 50. 



572 COAL. 

acres of the land held under such prospectmg hcense 
shall be issued to the company holdmg it without pay- 
n)ent of the upset price of such land. In other words, 
they receive virtually a bonus of $5,000 in considera- 
tion of the preliminary expenditure of the larger sum," 

"When I was in the bush," writes Robert Duns- 
muir to H. L. Langevin, minister of public works, 
"in the month of October 1869, not exactly for the 
purpose of prospecting for coal, but being thoroughly 
acquainted from past experience with all the coal 
formation in this country, I came across a ridge of 
rock, which I knew to be the strata overlying the 
lowest seam that had as yet been discovered here. A 
short time afterwards I sent tw^o men to prosj^ect, and 
in three days discovered a seam of coal three and a 
half feet in thickness, thirty feet below the tops of 
the ridge, dipping south-east one foot in six. After 
procuring from government a right to further pros- 
pect, I sunk a slope ninety-seven and two-thirds yards 
in the seam, and mined therefrom about 500 tons, 
twenty-five tons of which w^ere taken on board of 
H. M. S. Boxer for trial. The same quantities were 
taken from the Vancouver Coal Company's Douglas 
Pit and New Castle Mine." 

Andrew Watt, the engineer of the Boxer, made a 
lengthy report which pronounced in favor of the 
Dunsmuir.^^ In several other places Mr Dunsmuir 
found coal, once among the roots of a fallen tree, under 
which was a valuable seam. His estimate of the yield 
of his field was 7,000 tons to the acre. 

When at Nanaimo in 1871, Richardson found E. 
E. Emery raising gray sandstone for the new mint 
building at San Erancisco from the quarry opened on 
their claim by the Vancouver Company,^*' who were 

^^ ' With Dxinsmuir coal the throttle was nearly wide open, with New Castle 
and Douglas from one third to one half open. ' The first made less soot and 
less dirt than the others. Lamjevins B. (.'., 12. 

^" ' Six blocks for pillars had been procured from the ten-feet bed, one of 
which was being dressed into shape for use. When finished, the length of the 
pillars would be 27^ feet, with a diameter of 3 feet 10 inches. Mr Euiery was 



VANCOUVER, HARE-WOOD, AND WELLIXUTON. 573 

working with small steam-engines the two seams on 
Newcastle Island, where little had been done for some 
time past. Piled on the wharf were several hundred 
tons of coal, whence an occasional schooner or steamer 
was supplied. The main works of this company, how- 
ever, were at Nanaimo, distant from the Newcastle 
Island works two miles. Here work has been more 
continuous for the j^ast twenty years than on New- 
castle Island, 40,000 tons being taken out in 1870 
against 14,000 tons in 18 GO. Richardson places the 
area of the Nanaimo coal-field, which includes several 
minor and unworked seams, at about ninety square 
miles, having a length from Gabriola Island to the 
Dunsmuir claim of sixteen miles by a breadth of six 
miles 

Sproat returns 241 miners in 1872, the entire pop- 
ulation then numbering 1,000. Wages at that time 
were from one dollar for Chinese and Indians to four 
dollars for white men per diem.^^ 

Early in 1874, T. A. Bukley began operations three 
or four miles back of Nanaimo, on what was afterward 
known as the Harewood Coal Mine, which holds land 
to the extent of nine thousand acres. Cameron Island 
in Nanaimo Harbor is the point of shipment for this 
mine. 

In 1877 there were three companies at work in 
the Nanaimo district, the Vancouver, the AVellington, 
and the Harewood, the first working two seams, six 
and three feet in thickness respectively. The Wel- 
lington Company worked one seam nine and a half 
feet thick, and held another six feet in thickness. 
They had three wharves, with all the facilities for 
loading vessels. The Harewood seam was five or six 

also quarrying flag-stones from the 12-feet bed, from which are obtained very 
even-surfaced slabs, from one to six inches thick. One of the latter thickness, 
which I measurcil, was ten feet square.' Richardnon, in Bept. Geol. Sur. Can- 
ada, 1871-2, 84. 

"'The coal shipped by this company during the ten years ending 31st 
December 1872, reached 330,305 tons, nenrly one half of which was for the 
San Francisco market.' Sproai's B. C'., 78. See alio Anderson's Do)ii. of the 
West, 84, and apj),, ii.-iii. 



574 COAL. 

feet thick. ^^ From the Vancouver and "WelHngton 
mines coal was carried to the wharf bj sliort steam 
railways; the Harewood mine used an elevated wire 
tramway. 

Under a judiciously combined system of capital 
and labor Nanaimo has developed into a busy incor- 
porated town. Beautifully situated with bright skies, 
pure air, and seaboard attractions and utilities, with 
schools, churches, municipal council, and member of 
parliament, it presents little of that sooty, opaque 
appearance, either ph^^sical or moral, so common to 
the colliery villages of England. From the first the 
Vancouver company, of which the manager is some- 
times mayor, as was the case with Mark Bate in 1877, 
adopted a wise and humane policy, selling lots at low 
prices so that the poor might have a home, and 
encouraging settlement and improvement by various 
means. 

A trough of coal-bearing rocks had been conjec- 
tured in regard to Queen Charlotte Islands not wholly 
unlike that before mentioned on Vancouver Island. 
It is said to extend from the northern part of Morseby 
Island northward eighty-four miles. Besides the 
Queen Charlotte Company's mine at Cowgitz, in 
Skidegate Channel, for some time past anthracite 
has been known to exist at Cumshewas Harbor, and 
Masset at the northern end of the islands. 

Robert Brown, botanist of the British Columbia 
exploring expedition, visited the Queen Charlotte 
Islands in 1866 in company with a party of miners 
who went thither to examine the coal deposits of that 

22 « The coal is worked, I belicA^e, on the pillar and stall system, though parts 
of the seam have been so steeply inclined as to require stoping. The miners 
employed are whites, Chinese, and Indians. Mr Gkiod states the number of 
each for the year 1875 to be as follows: whites, 396; Chinese, 17G; Indians, 
51; giving a total of 623. The wages earned by the whites vary from two 
dollars to five dollars a day; by the Chinese and Indians, from one dollar to 
one dollar and a half.' The total output of the Nanaimo mines for 1875 was 
110,145 tons; for 1876, 140,187 tons; price at the mine, five or six dollars; 
of San Francisco, ten dollars. Hihhens Guide B. C, 98j Dawson on 2Iines, 20. 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS 575 

section. At Skidcgate Bay where was tlien the chief 
development he spent several weeks. " Two rival par- 
ties of miners were there prospecting-," he says, "and 
one of them had driven an adit into the hill-side some 
two or three hundred feet above the sea-leveh"^^ 

These early prospectors were at first unsuccessful. 
Now and then the pick would strike a block of good 
anthracite,^* but for the most part it upturned only 
"a material not unlike wet or damp gunpowder." 
Later they were more successful, so much so that a 
company was formed at Victoria, called the Queen 
Charlotte Coal ]\Iining Company, which began opera- 
tions there, but were obliged to abandon them on 
account of the irregularity of the deposit. 

Richardson was there in 1872, and reported that 
the best seam, which for GO or 70 feet had a thickness 
of six feet, was lost in shale and limestone. There was 
another bed of good anthracite, two and a half feet 
thick, and many smaller seams discovered in various 
directions. This was on the north side of Skidegate 
Channel. On the south side, fourteen miles south- 
east from Cowgitz, where the Queen Charlotte Com- 
pany had opened their mines, the existence of anthracite 
was reported by the natives."^ " Nothing can be better 

^^ ' Here they had gone through a great bed of coarse conglomerate, a fine 
hard slate when the coal was reached. T'lis conglomerate was in every 
respect similar to that associated with the Nanaimo coal-lields; but the slate 
was peculiar. ' Browns Coal Fields, 20. 

2* At the government assay office, New Westminster, an analysis made by 
Claudet showed carbon, 71.20; moisture, 5.10; volatile combustible matter, 
17.27; ash, 6.43, which brings it close to Pennsylvania anthracite. The chief 
engineer of the United States nav}', B. F. Isherwood, gives as the result of 
his experiments at the Mare Island navy-yard, on some of the coals of the 
west and east for the purpose of ascertaining their relative strength and 
economic vaporization under various conditions of combustion, among other 
valuable information, the relative weights of steam obtainable from equal 
bulks: From a culjic foot of Pennsylvania anthracite, at a slow rate of com- 
bustion, 471.51 lbs.; Queen Charlotte Islands anthracite, 369.37; Welsh, 
565.92; Rocky Mountain, Monte Diablo, Coos Bay, and Seattle, 319.98; Bel- 
lingham Bay, 371.86; Nanaimo, 372.64; Nanaimo coke, 192.47. See Is/ier- 
VMoil's Jicpori, in Ex. Doc. xVo. ;?'W, 1871-2, I'd Sc'--<s., 4J'l C'oixj., passim. 

■•'■' 'This would give an extent of at least twenty miles to the coal-bearing 
strata which have thus been partially examined, and the facts mentioned indi- 
cate a general presence of coal in it, however nmch what may be considered 
the same seams may vary in their distances from one another on the strike, in 
their thickness and their qualities.' Riclainlson, iu Geol. Stir. C'ancula, 1872-3, 
58-60. 



S76 COAL. 

or more substantially constructed," reports Richard- 
son, ''than the wharf, the houses, tramways, inclines, 
dumping-sheds, and tunnels of the Queen Charlotte 
Coal Mining Company, and it is much to be regretted 
that their efforts have not been more successful." 

Extensive deposits were reported discovered on 
Skeena River by Downie in 1859.-^ "I saw seams 
of coal to-day," writes an explorer on Simpson River 
to Governor Douglas, ''fifteen feet thick, better than 
any mined at Vancouver." 

The coals of Baynes Sound and vicinity are pro- 
nounced by some better than that of Nanaimo, but 
the harbor facilities are much inferior.^'' Before 1869 
this region had been thoroughly prospected. 

The Baynes Sound Colliery Company, Limited, 
having 5,000 acres of coal lands, began operations ten 
miles south-east from Comox in 1876. By the expira- 
tion of the following year, a narrow-guage tramway 
from the mine to tide-water, three and a half miles, 
had been constructed, with a locomotive, cars, and a 
wharf with two shutes.^^ A saw-mill was built, a town 
site surveyed to which was given the name Quadra, 
and a store, drinking-shop, hotel, and post-ofUce erected 
for the accommodation of the dozen settlers who were 
there in 1877. 

At Burrard Inlet, coal was found by Henry N. 

26 ' The Skeena River is said to pass through an extensive coal formation, 
■with coal beds 3 to 35 feet thick. This may, however, be lignite.' Dawsm 
on MincK, 44. 

'" ' Tlie coal here is of better quality than at Nanaimo, and produces ex- 
cellent coke. ' Bmwns Coal Fields, 13. ' The Comox area has probably a greater 
extent of productive measures, and may eventually become more important 
than Nanaimo.' Duirson on Mines, 20. 

28 'The mine is opened from the bank of a small river, adit,or level free, 
from whence the coal is delivered into bunkers near the mouth of the adit. 
From the bunkers it is let into the cars and delivered on shipboard without 
being again handled. The bunkers already constructed have a capacity of 
2,000 tons. There are two coal-seams being worked, one overlying the other. 
The lower seam is seven feet thick, and the upper one six feet. The coal in 
the upper seam is very similar to the Douglas seam of Nanaimo, while that 
in the lower seam appears to differ from all the. other coals as yet discovered 
on the Island. It is a dense hard coal, free from sulphur, gives a dense 
hard coke, and requires a strong draft to ignite it.' B. C. Guide, 1877-8, 107. 



OUTPUT AND PRICES. 577 

Peers; and in 1859 six bags, taken by the Plmn2oer 
from the outcrop from a place which was called Coal 
Harbor, were pronounced by the engineer of fair 
quality. Coal was likewise seen in the delta of Fraser 
River, but even if the bed was of any importance the 
water could scarcely be excluded so that it could be 
worked. ~^ 

The minister of mines reporting in 1875 is pleased 
to notice the increase of the output of that year over 
the year previous. He places the yield for 1874 at 
81,000 tons, and that of 1875 at 110,000 tons. All 
the coal-mines then being worked in British Columbia 
were at or in the vicinity of Nanainio. The diamond 
drill was brought into requisition in searching for 
fresh seams by an engineer brought from England 
for that purpose. 

In 1876 fire broke out in the Wellington mine, 
causing some damage. The Baynes Sound and Hare- 
wood mines that year began putting their coals in 
market, and the price throughout the province gener- 
ally was reduced from ten and eleven dollars to eight 
dollars and seventy-five cents. 

The depression of the market at San Francisco, 
with other causes, resulted in the cessation of opera- 
tions at the Harewood in 1877; notwithstanding which 
the output for this year was 15,000 tons more than 
that of 1876. 

By act of the legislative assembly, April 18, 1877, 
the coal-mines of British Columbia were placed under 
stringent and healthful regulations. By this act women 
and girls are not allowed to work under ground, nor 
any boy under twelve years of age; and when a boy 
under fourteen is employed by reason of the thinness 
of the seam, or from any other cause, to work below 
ground, he shall not so work more than five days of 

^McDonald is quite mistaken when he sa}'s, Brit. Col, SO, 'Tlie first 
discovery made of this mineral in British Columbia, ' meaning thereby the 
Mainland, ' was at Burrard's Inlet, six miles from K ew Westminster, about 
three years ago.' 

IIIST. BiuT. Col. 37 



578 COAL. 

six hours each in any one week. Wages must not be 
paid in a Hquor saloon; persons paid according to 
quantity raised might nominate their own check- 
weigher; single shafts were prohibited, except in 
opening or proving a mine or other specified cases. 
Then the act tells how a mine shall be divided into 
parts; how examiners for granting certificates of com- 
petency to managers, and how managers shall be ap- 
pointed, and in which appointment the greatest care is 
to be taken by the board and by the minister that oiify 
competent, experienced, and temperate persons shall 
be selected. Annual returns must be made to the 
minister of mines; notice must be given of all acci- 
dents; and when a mine is abandoned the grounds 
must be fenced. Inspectors were to be appointed who 
should make their annual report; and provisions were 
made for the reo^ulation of arbitration, and the holding 
of coroners' inquests on accidental deaths. Pages of 
rules and penalties follow, rules concerning ventila- 
tion, fencing, stations, withdrawal of men in time of 
danger, safety-lamps, blasting, water, man-holes, roofs, 
slides, signalling, working shaft, machinery, engines, 
breaks, gauges, barometer, wilful damage, inspection 
by both employers and employed, and so on at length. 

Summarizing the results of coal and lignite discov- 
eries in British Columbia to 1877, we have, beginning 
on the coast at the north, the reported discoveries of 
Downie on Skeena River; the specimens of anthra- 
cite brought from Masset, the anthracitic seams devel- 
oped at Cowgitz, and the anthracite rejDorted by the 
natives on the south side of Skidegate Channel, all 
on Queen Charlotte Islands; the bituminous coal at 
Beaver Harbor, near Fort Rupert, and at Quatsino 
Sound; specimens brought by the natives to the 
Plumper while at Fort Rupert, from the Mainland 
opposite; the discoveries and developments in the 
Comox, Baynes Sound, Valdes Inlet, and Nanaimo 
districts ; on the north side of Cowitchin Bay and the 



SUMMARY. 579 

interior; specimens mentioned by Brown from the 
Chemanis district, and from the De Courcy Islands ; 
the head of Alberni Canal ; at Saanich, a very infe- 
rior quality ; at Soke, a shallow boring passing through 
one inch of coal, near the coast west of Soke Inlet 
and back of Barclay Sound; specimens shown by the 
natives at Nitinat; at Burrard Inlet, in the delta of 
the Eraser, and between Burrard Inlet and Howe 
Sound; in which vicinity in the flat lands thin seams 
of lignite, probably of upper tertiary formation, ap- 
pear; f\\rther back, on the lower Fraser, particularly 
near Langley, thin seams of bituminous coal are found 
probably in lower tertiary beds; on the Chilliwack 
Kiver, five miles from the Fraser, Dawson reports 
bituminous coal of good quality; also at the junction 
of Nicola and Coldwater rivers, and at several other 
[)Iaces on the latter stream ; on the north Thompson 
River, forty-five miles above Kamloop ; in the vicinity 
of Lilloet; lignite at Guichon Creek, near Nicola 
Kiver; on the south branch of the Similkameen above 
the Passyton, and again four miles above Vermilion 
Fork, and on the north branch of the Similkameen, 
three miles above Vermilion Fork; more lignite at 
the Cold Spring House on Lightning Creek; on the 
Fraser between Soda Creek and Fort George, and at 
Quesnel ; coal on Bear Biver near latitude 54°, on 
Peace and Pine rivers, described in Selwyn's Bcport, 
1875-6 ; on Simpson River ; lignite on Parsnip River ; 
on the lower Nechaco River, east of Fraser Lake ; 
on the upper Nechaco, south-west from Fraser Lake, 
and on the streams Black water, Chilaco, Nasco, and 
Punchaisco.^" 

^ Those desirous of investigating further the coal interest of the Northwest 
Coast may consult J/cA'«//'.v Hec, MS.,1U, 11 ; DoikjI'm Frimtc Papvrs, MS., 
2.1 ser., 50-G; Deans Stttkment V. /., MS., 20; B. C. Skrtc/ie-'i, MS., passim; 
MacfarUwes t'onl lieyion-f of Am., passim; i'ornioallis' New El Dorado. 43, which 
says: 'Coal abounds over the whole of tlie north-eastern territory, that is to 
say, from Cheslaker's, latitude 50^ 3()', to Cape Scott at its southern extremity; ' 
Jforetzb/'.'i Cnnada on the Puc'fir, 170; P'lrifir Rnilroail Re))OrU, i. 473, and vi. 
02-4; HomeComiiwm RrfitrnHo T/irce A(ff(r<'.<.ie.i,~; Blaii.iliar(/, in House Com. 
li'pt., 28G ; Dunns Or. Ter., 240 .■ Grant, in London Gi-oijraphkid Sor'tdy, Jour- 
nal, xxvii. 275-315; Victors All over Orcjon and Washington, 337; Bept. Com., 



580 COAL. 

S7th Cong., Sd Sess., H. Rept. 31, 35, where Mr Baylies says in 1S42: 'Coal in 
prodigious quantities has already been discovered;' Wilkes' Nar. U. S. Ex- 
plor. Ex., iv. passim; 34th Cong., 3d Sess., U.S. H. Eept. 171, i. 2; Ex. Doc. 
No. 20G, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., II. Eept., 206, x.; U. S. Commerce Stat., 1S63, 
193; Mayne'sB. a, 35, 379-S2; Graij's Hist. Or., 139; Goodi/ear's Coed Mines, 
passim; B. C. Directory, 1S63, 50, 142-3; Pemberton's V. /.,43-S; Forbes' Essay, 
18, 20; Macdonald's Lecture, 50; Rattray's V. I., 89, 162; Macdonald'sB. C, 
37, 367; Dawson on Mines, 17-27; Guide B. C, 1877-8, 4, 49-50, 97-109, 336, 
Imray's Sailing Directions W. Coast N. Am., 278; Consol. Laws, B. C, 1877, 
461-96; Statutes B. C, 1878, 59; Rept. Min. Mines, 1875-6, and 1877, passim; 
Sproat's B. C, 6, 22, 77-9; Anderson's Dom. West, 84-6, app. ii., iii.; Flem- 
ing's Repts. Sur. Can. Pac. Railway, passim; Brown's Coed Fields, passim; and 
Langevin's B. C, 11-13, 86-7, 129-31; Compton'sB. C, MS., passim; Victoria 
Colonist, Aug. 16, 1864, July 17, 1866, March 22, May 17, 1871, Jan. 29, 1873, 
April 22, 1874, etc.; Victoria Standard, April 23, 25, May 8, June 1, Aug. 19, 
Nov. 19, May 14, 23, 1877; British Columbian, June 5, 1807; Seattle Tribune, 
Feb. 23, 1877; Mining Mag., i. 309-10; Com. Rel., 1868, 293-7; and Bayley'a 
V. I., MS., 11-14. 

Among other works consulted in the preceding chapters may be mentioned 
B. C. and V. I., by W. C. Hazlitt, and The Great Gold Fields of Cariboo, 
with an Authentic Description of B. C. and V. I., by the same author. The 
former, which is compiled from various authorities, and consists largely of 
quotations, gives brief sketches of early voyages, of native life and habits, 
of the resources of tlie country, and of the gold discovery. In the latter we 
have a well-written account, containing all the reliable information then ac- 
cessible to the author, who was not a resident of either colony. Loth vol- 
umes appear to have been written mainly for the information of intending 
emigrants. V. I. and B. C, Where They are. What They are, and What 
They may Become, by A. Rattray, M. D., Edin., R. N., is a cleverly written 
little book, which shows that its author has been at some pains to inquire 
into the condition and prospects of the tv/o colonies. Prominence is given, 
however, to V. I., and the object of the woik is apparently to display, in tlie 
most favorable light, its advantages for settlement. As indicated in the title- 
page, the subject-matter treats, not so much of what had been, as of what 
was to be; and comparing, as I turn oA'er its pages, the colored lithograph.s 
of Hope and Yale, I cannot but admit that the predictions of tlie author hiive 
already been measurably fulfilled. When and after the gold excitement 
brought the mainland into prominence, the journals of the Paciflc coast were 
teeming with paragraphs and articles touching the El Dorado of British 
America, though before 1858 I find but scant reference to either colony. For 
items and comments, see, among others, S. F. Bulletin, July 12, Dec. 5, 1S55; 
March 22, 1856; Apr. 24, May 7, 18, June 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, IS, 19, 21, 22, 25, 
28, 30, July 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 23, 26, 30, Aug. 2, 7, 18, 19, 23, 
24, 27, Sept. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 17, 25, 29, Oct. 1, 4, 12, 13, 18, 23, 26. 30, Nov. 
2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, Dec. 6, 8, 9, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28, 30, 
31, 1858; Jan. 3, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 26, 29, Feb. 15, 17, 28, March 3, S, 16, 17, 
21, 25, 29, 30, Apr. 1, 15, 18, 23, 28, 30, May 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 30, 31, June 
10, 11, 13, 14, 24, July 13, 15, 29, 30, Aug. 1, 11, 25, 26, Sept. 30, Oct. 10, 
Nov. 30, Dec. 14, 23, 1859; Apr. 18, July 6, Aug. 20, Sept. 27, Oct. 18, 20, 
1860; May 31, June 11, 14, July 2, 15, Sept. 2, Oct. 17, 1861; Jan. 30, March 
5, 22, 31, Apr. 4, 21, May 9, 10, 13, 20, 27, June 9, 14, 24, July 11, 16, 22, 20, 
Aug. 1, Oct. 13, 23, 27, 31, Dec. 15, 1862; Feb. 10, 23, March 12, 23, 30, Apr. 
26, 27, May 19, June 29, July 11, 21, Aug. 3, Sept. 9, 19, Oct. 7, 21, 29, Dec. 
16, 1863; Apr. 25, June 16, 30, July 19, Aug. 9, 10, 27, Sept. 5, 12, 20, 27, 
Oct. 6, 10, 13, 14, 24, Nov. 1, 15, 22, 1864; Jan. 12, Feb. 3, March 4, May 30, 
June 19, Julys, 1865; Feb. 14, Apr. 10, May 8, June 11, July 3, Aug. 11, 
Sept. 1, 1866; Feb. 1, 1809; March 24, Apr. 26, June 17, 1870; June 22, July 
13, 1871; Jan. 8, 29, Feb. 14, Sept. 4, 25, 1872; Oct. 1, 1873; Apr. 5,.1S7S; 
Apr. 7, 1879; Alta, May 17, 1854; Jan. 27, June 30, 1857; May 18, June 7, 
8, Aug. 2, 12, 25, 26, Sept. 18, 26, Oct. 3. 21, 22, Nov. 4, 30, 1858; Jan. 5. 11, 



AUTHORITIES. 681 

14, 20, 21, 27, 31, Feb. 15, 16, 17, 21, 24, March 1, 4, 5, 9, 17, 19, 25, 30, Apr. 

I, 3, 11, 15, 17, 21, 25, 28, 29, 30, May 10, 13, 14, 10, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 
30, 31, June 11, 17, 25, July 13, 14, 30, Au^. 4, 11, 27, Sept. 2, 20, Oct. 11, 
14, 15, 31, Nov. 3, 14, 30, Dec. 11, 24, 1859; Jan. 25, Feb. 4, 19, March 5, 
Apr. 4, 13, 18, May 21, June 13, 20, July 4, 18, 27, 30, Aug. 1, 5, 7, 9, 14, 
20, Oct. 1, 19, 22, Nov. 8, 11, 23, Dec. 11, 22, 29, ISGO; Feb. 7, 8, May 23, 
June 17, 18, July 11, 21, Aug. 8, Sept. 9, 23, Oct. 8, 11, 22, Nov. 3, 25, 18G1; 
June 25, Aug. 2, 25, Oct. 14, 21, 1862; Jan. 22, Apr. 24, June 9, 19, 30, July 

II, Aug. 16, 20, Sept. 7, Nov. 16, 1863; July 19, Nov. 2, 1864; Jan. 20, Apr. 

9, May 22, July 3, Aug. 10, 20, Dec. 6, 16, 1865; Feb. 20, Dec 28, 1SG6; 
Apr. 12, July 29, 1867; March 25, 1869; March 24, July 15, Dec. 3. 1871; 
April 15,1877; Call, Jan. 12, Apr. 19, June 24, July 19, Aug. 10, 11, 26, 
Sept. 13, 27, Oct. 6, Nov. 13, 1864; June 13, 1865; Feb. 8, March 26, May 
26, June 13, July 19, Aug. 28, 1867; Feb. 27, March 1, Apr. 30, July 15. 
Aug. 9, 20, 30, Sept. 18, 19, Nov. 24, 1868; March 5, 1870; Jan. 4, 1871; 
Nov. 7, 1872; Feb. 13, June 25, 1874; Jan. 25, 1878; Times, June 4, 1867; 
May 16, June 25, July 20, Sept. 2, 5, 1868; Feb. 17, March 10, 22, 30, Apr. 
28, Oct. 14, 23, 1869; Herald, Apr. 23, June 10, Sept. 6, 1858; March 31, 
Nov. 10, 1859; March 5, Apr. 26, May 9, Dec. 13, 1860; IMarch 16, 12, 1869; 
Post, Sept. 15, 1873; Jan. 7, July 25, 1878; Chronicle, Jan. 5, 20, 1869; July 
16, 1871; Golden Era, March 15, 1857; Aug. 27, 1865; Mercantile Gazette, 
June 19, 1858: Sac. Record-Union, Aug. 16, 1855; Feb. 27, Apr. 9, 16, May 
22, Sept. 17, 1856; Jan. 22, Feb. 5, Apr. 5, 12, 21, 23, May 24, 28, June 8, 9, 

10, 11, 12, 19,22. 23, Sept. 27, Oct. 18, Nov. 24, Dec. 29, 1858; Jan. 3, Apr. 
19, June 21, 25, 1859; March 21, Apr. 30, Aug. 22, Sept. 27, 29, Oct. 9, 1860; 
March 9, Apr. 29, June 1, Sept. 24, Nov. 9, 12, 16, 21, Dec. 12, 1861; March 
3, 5, 1862; Portland West Shore, July, 1879; Standard, Sept. 7, 1877; West- 
ern Orcqonian, Jan. 10, 1878; Pioche Record, March 14, 1873; Tuscarora 
Times-Review, Feb. 10, 1878. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

UNION" AND CONFEDERATION. 

1S63-1S71. 

A Legislative Council Organized for British Columbia — Inaugural 
Address of Governor Douglas — A Meek Response — Separate 
Rulers Appointed for the Two Colonies— A Cordial Leave-taking 
— Review of Douglas' Administration — Regime of Frederick Sey- 
mour — Excessive Taxation — Union of the Colonies — The British 
North America Act — Anthony Musgrave Governor — British 
Columbia a Province or the Dominion — A Legislative AssEaiBLY 
Substituted for the Council — Condition of the Province — Indian 
Policy of the United States and of Great Britain. 

Those among my readers who may chance to have 
lived in a British colony have probably observed how 
little there is to relate concerning the government of 
that colony, and how void of interest is that little. 
There are of course the usual changes of administra- 
tion, the usual squabbles in the legislature, some of 
them as disgraceful as any which occur at Sacramento 
or Salem, or wheresoever else amateur law-makers 
lay burdens on the people, and contend in unseemly 
phrase for the people's spoils. As a rule, however, 
though with many exceptions, the colonies are lightly 
taxed. They pay no tribute to her Majesty's gov- 
ernment; they do not even pay for the support or, 
expenses of the troops or vessels of war sent forth 
for their protection;* and they object very strongly 
and decisively to too much amateur legislation, 
especially when it touches their pockets. In brief, 

^ Except the so-called colonial allowance of sixpence a day made to the 
troops. 



LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. 5S3 

most of the British dependencies are virtually re- 
publics, with the privilege of becoming at any time 
actual republics, and have, free of expense, the pro- 
tection of Great Britain, while the governor wields 
little more authority than does in the mother country 
the queen of England, who cannot obtain, except from 
her private revenues, a sixpence wherewith to pur- 
chase her breakfast, unless it be voted by parliament. 

But in 18G3 Vancouver Island and British Colum- 
bia were merely colonies in name. During the regime 
of Douglas, and for several years thereafter, it can- 
not be said that responsible government existed either 
on the Island or on the Mainland. In the former 
there was, as we have seen, an elective house of assem- 
bly, but its vote could not remove the executive 
officials, as was the case in other colonies. The 
legislative and executive functions were vested in the 
governor and his council, whose acts were termed 
ordinances, and had almost the force of statutes in 
parliament.^ On the Mainland a legislative council 
was organized by authority of a royal order, dated 
the 11th of June, 1863,^ and consisted at first of 
thirteen members,* of whom five were government 
officials,""^ five were magistrates appointed by the gov- 
ernor, and the remainder were elected by the people, 
certificates being issued to them on the reporting of 
their names by the returning officer. 

The council met for the first time at New West- 
minster on the 21st of January, 18G4, nine members 

^DeComnos, V. I. and Brit. Col. Govt, MS., 19. 

^For copy of this order, see Joiir. Le'jlsl. Council, B. C, 1S64, 4-5. 

■• The members for the first session were Arthur N. Birch, colonial secre- 
tary anil presiding member; Henry P. P. Crease, attorney -general; Wymond 
O. Handey, collector of customs; Chartres Brew, Peter O'Keilly, Edward 11. 
Sanders, Henry M. Ball, and Philip H. Nind, magistrates for New West- 
minster, Cariboo, Yale and Hope, Lytton, and Douglas; and Joshua A. R. 
Homer, Robert T. Smith, Henry Holbrook, James Orr, and Walter S. Black 
fur their respective districts of New Westminster, Yale and Lytton, Doug- 
las and Lillooct, Cariboo East, and Cariboo West. During this session a 
resolution presented by Mr Homer praying that a legislative assembly be 
organized was negatived by the casting vote of the presiding member. 

*Tl)e colonial secretary, attorney-general, treasurer, chief connnissioner 
of lands and works, and collector of customs. 



584 UXIOX AND CONFEDERATION. 

being present. In his opening address Douglas con- 
gratulated them on this first step toward representa- 
tive government and popular institutions, which, he 
declared, her Majesty had withheld during the in- 
fancy of the colony, only from a sincere regard for its 
happiness and prosperity. He urged on them a vigor- 
ous prosecution of the public works as a measure of 
vital importance to the colony, and one that would 
give to the waste lands of British Columbia a value 
which they did not then possess. With a view to in- 
crease population and encourage settlement, he had 
thrown open the public lands to actual settlers on the 
most liberal terms, and had done his utmost to en- 
courage mining and every species of enterprise that 
tended to develop -the resources of the country, though 
the result of these measures had not, as yet, answered 
his expectations. The Indian tribes, he said, ^vere 
quiet and well disposed. Reserves, embracing village 
sites and cultivated fields had been set apart for them, 
their area in no case exceeding ten acres for each famihv, 
and this being inalienable and held as joint prop- 
erty.^ Appropriations were recommended for reli- 
gious purposes, and for the establishment and support 
of schools, though it was far from his wish to estab- 
lish a dominant or endowed church in a colony to which 
people of all religious denominations were invited. He 
promised soon to lay before them a communication 
from the secretary of state for the colonies, with pro- 
posals for opening telegraphic and postal communi- 
cation between British Columbia and the head of 
Lake Superior. Finally he laid before them an esti- 
mate of the expenditure for the past year, amounting 
to £192,860,'' while the revenue for the same period 
was but £110,000.^ Meanwhile bonds had been 

^ Though as individuals they had the same right of acquiring and holding 
land by purchase or occupation as other classes of her Majesty's subjects. 

'Of which £S3,937 was for public roads, £12,650 for redemption of I'oad 
bonds created in 1802, £1.5,288 for public works, buildings, and transport, 
£13,72r> for interest on loans and sinking fund, and £31,615 for the civil estab- 
lishment. 

* Of which over £55,000 was obtained from customs dues. 3Iac/ies, V.I. 
and B. G, 



GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. 585 

created and loans contracted to the amount of .£65,- 
805, leaving still a deficiency of £17,055, in addition 
to a sura of £10,700 due to the imperial government 
for the expenses of the royal engineers. For 1864 
the outlay, including the debit balance, was set down 
at £ 1 07,910, and the income from all sources at £120,- 
000, thus leaving a balance of £12,090; but this, it 
was explained, made no provision for the mainte- 
nance of a gold escort, or for the expense of public 
works. Asking the advice of the members whether 
it was expedient to undertake such works during the 
current year, and if so, how their cost should be de- 
frayed, the governor took his seat.^ 

Thus did the lordly Douglas give to the colonists 
of British Columbia a foretaste of the blessings of 
representative government. At this date the white 
population of the colony was probably less than eight 
thousand, and of this number a large proportion was 
of the migratory class. To lay on them, at this early 
period in their history, a tax exceeding §120 per cap- 
ita was a measure unheard of in the history of British 
colonization, and one that elsewhere would at least 
have provoked much angry discussion. But not so 
among this staid and dutiful assemblage. The speech 
v.-as received with profound respect; the oath was 
administered by Mr Justice Begbie, who declared 
the session duly opened. His excellency then took 
his leave; and after some unimportant business, the 
members adjourned, presenting, three days later, an 
humble address, wherein they expressed their earnest 
resolve to act in concert with the governor to the 
best of their ability. 

There is a refreshing simplicity about the early 
sessions of the legislative council, and one that con- 
trasts strangely with the stormy incidents of a later 
period. On the 5th of February this body went into 
committee of supply, and on its rising, a few minutes 

'A copy of his atklress will be found in Id., 1SG4, 1-4. 



581} UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

later, the presiding member^'' reported the adoption 
of a bill of supply, amounting to £135,630, for the 
service of the ensuing year, together with a recom- 
mendation that it be now read a first time. The 
question of the first reading being then put to the 
council, it was so ordered, and the bill was read ac- 
cordingly. A few minutes later it was read a second 
time, and committed; .reported back without amend- 
ments; passed to a third reading, the standing orders 
being suspended; and thus, probably within the space 
of an hour, the supplies were voted, an additional 
sum of £80,700 being granted during the session by 
various resolutions.^^ 

The term of the governor's commission for Van- 
couver Island expired in September 18G3, and for 
British Columbia one year later. Partly on account 
of his free-handed disposition of the public funds, how- 
ever, and also with a view to sever the last link tliat 
connected them, directl}^ or indirectly, with the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, many of the colonists, both of 
the Mainland and Island, had already petitioned fur 
the appointment of separate governors, ^^ and before 
the close of 1863 it was officially announced that 
their request would be granted. That, nevertheless, 
Douglas was still supported by the wealth and intel- 
ligence of both colonies, is sufficiently apparent from 

'" In the absence of the colonial secretary, the chair was occupied by the 
attorney-general. 

'VoMr. LerjisL Council, B. C, 1864, 13; speech of Gov. Seymour, in /(/., 
1865, 3. 

'^As early as October 1858 a petition, signed by 117 residents of Victoria, 
■was forwarded to Sir Bulwer Lytton, praying for the removal of Douglas. 
The petitioners asked that 'an English gentleman, free and independent of 
any interest save the public Vv-elfare, may be appointed by her Majesty's gov- 
ernment.' Ue Coi^mos, V. /., and Brit. Col. Govt, JMS., 25. Amor De Cosmos, 
a native of Nova Scotia, came to Cal. in l&^'S, removing to Victoria in 185S, 
where he began the publication of a newspaper in the autumn of that year. 
He commenced his public career by drawing wp the petition above referred 
to; and though on principle opposed to the government as it then existed, 
was elected a member of the second legislature of V. I. From his Govern- 
ments of Vancouver island and British Columbia, MS., I have gathered items 
of interest extending over the period between the founding of Victoria and 
the confederation. In the opening pages of his MS. is an account of various 
newspapers published at Victoria, between 1858 and 1863, of which mention 
will be made later. 



SIR JAMES DOUGLAS. 5S7 

the addresses presented to liiin by tlie people of Van- 
couver Island, at his official leavo-taking in Septem- 
ber, and b}^ the people of British Columbia a few 
months later. The former was signed by all the 
bankers and professional men, and nearly all the lead- 
ing merchants of Victoria, while to the latter were 
appended more than nine hundred signatures." But, 
as he declared, it was his earnest desire to withdraw 
from further public connection with the colonies, and 
this desire he had long ago intimated to the secretary 
of state. In fact, it may be doubted whether Doug- 
las was ever really willing to accept office as governor. 
In doing so he added nothing to his income; on the 
contrary, it is probable that the increased expense oF 
his establishment made him a loser thereby; while 
in freedom from hai^assing cares the position of 
governor under the Hudson's Bay Company was in- 
finitely preferable to that of her Majesty's represent- 
ative in the colonies. 

By the October mail arrived a number of the Ga- 
zette, in which appeared the announcement that Doug- 
las had been knighted. A few months later, after 
being feasted and flattered to more than his heart's 
content, he bid farewell to the settlement which he had 
founded in 1843, as a mere trading post, with little 
certaint}'" that it would ever become the metropolis of 
a thriving and ambitious colony. Ashe proceeded on 
foot, accompanied by his staff, from the government 
house to the Hudson's Bay wharf, every flag-staff in 
the town was decorated with bunting, the citizens 
raising their hats as he passed, and many of them join- 
ing in the procession. The steamer Enterprise, ga3dy 
decked with colors, awaited his arrival, and as he 
reached the foot of the gangway, the cheers which had 

"Copies of them will be found in Addr. and Memor. Sir James Dougla,% 
3, 32-3. The former encloseil a memorial, and the latter was in the form of 
an address, Loth to be forwarded to tlie duke of Newcastle. Addresses were 
presented by the legislative council and assemlily at Victoria, and by the 
legislature at New Westminster, for which see /(/., 18-20; Jour. Lefiist. 
Council, B. C, 1SG4, 29. The government officials, the inhabitants of Yale 
and Hope, and others, also forwarded addresses. 



583 UNION AND CONFEDERATIOX. 

greeted him along his route burst forth with redoubled 
volume, the multitude thronging round to grasp him 
by the hand. As the vessel moved off, the band sta- 
tioned on board the Otter struck up the tune of Auld 
Lang Syne, and a salute of thirteen guns was fired 
b}'- the Hudson's Bay employes. Then followed the 
strains of the national anthem; and thus was Sir 
James Douglas, K. C. B., sent on his way to the 
Mainland, there to be again banqueted, toasted, and 
plied with addresses, and then to retire for a while 
into private life at his home in New Westminster," 

Twenty-two years had now elapsed since the natives 
of Camosun had first seen the calm waters of their 
harbor ruffled by the little steamer on board of which 
Douglas came and determined the site of the present 
city of Victoria. During many of these years he had 
controlled the affairs of the great monopoly in the 
north-west. How skilful had been his management, 
how mild his rule, and how judicious his policy, the 
reader is well aware who has followed his career 
throughout the narrative which I have laid before 
him. If his administration as governor is open to 
censure, the faults which he committed are such as 
detract but little from his fame. That he was lavish 
in the expenditure of the public funds, laying upon 
the infant colony burdens greater than it could bear, 
cannot be disputed; but this outlay, incurred mainly 
for opening roads to the mining districts, then the 
main source of wealth, and without which Victoria 
would have remained a village, must be regarded rather 
as an investment than as a tax on the industries of 
the people. Insignificant as were then the British 
possessions in the north-west, remote from the mother 
country, with which there was no prompt communi- 
cation, except through foreign sources, with a sparse 
but heterogeneous population, composed largely of 

"A description of the fetes and banquets held at Victoria and New West 
minster, with the addresses and memorials presented by the citizens and the 
comments of the press on the occasion of Douglas' retirement, will be found iu 
Addr, and Memor. Sir James D oughts. 



GOVERNOR SEY^IOUR. 589 

Americans, impatient of British rule and imbittered 
by the disputes incidental to the San Juan difficult}^ 
without the means of competing with older and more 
favored communities — amid all these difficulties the 
colonies had developed with a steady and stalwart 
growth. And to none was this result so largely due 
as to him from whom we will now take our leave, 
quoting in conclusion a few words from his reply to 
an address presented by the citizens of New West- 
minster — words uttered in no spirit of vainglory or 
boastfulness : "This is surely the voice and heart of 
British Columbia. Here are no specious phrases, no 
hollow or venal compliments. This speaks out broadly, 
and honestly, and manfully. It assures me that my 
administration has been useful; that I have done my 
duty faithfully; that I have used the power of my 
sovereign for good, and not for evil; that I have 
wronged no man, oppressed no man; but that I have, 
with upright rule, meted out equal-handed justice to 
all." 

Toward the end of April 1864, a few days before 
the close of the first session of the council, Frederick 
Sej^mour, successor to Douglas on the Mainland, ar- 
rived at New Westminster. Seymour had formerly 
held office as governor of British Honduras, where 
his health had been seriously impaired. He was a 
man of mediocre ability, of no great force of character, 
somewhat timid and over-conservative in policy, and 
apt to place too much dependence on those by whom 
he was surrounded; one who might have reigned with 
credit in a settled and prosperous community, as 
among the sugar-planters of Belize, but was ill fitted 
for the control of a young and ambitious colony. The 
task which he had now before him required the ser- 
vices of a more capable ruler, and this he soon made 
apparent to the members of the council. Proroguing 
that body, on the 4th of May, he remarked that he 
found himself obliired to consider a measure involvin^r 



590 UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

the whole financial arrangements of the colony; an- 
other proposing to regulate its paper currency ; a third 
affectino: its internal navisjation; toofether with some 
twenty resolutions, many of them of grave import, 
and involving a considerable expenditure. As to most 
of the important measures, especially those concern- 
ing the supplementary estimates, he deferred his decis- 
ion until the winter session, or reserved them for her 
Majesty's consideration. He gave his assent, however, 
to the inland-navigation ordinance, and to resolutions 
for the survey of a road from the mouth of the Ques- 
nel to Cariboo, together with an extra expenditure of 
£40,000 in that district. He also assented to several 
others wherein no outlay was involved, among them 
being regulations for the postal service, for amending 
the customs duties, for declaring the legal rate of in- 
terest, and for registering documents relating to real 
estate,^^ 

On the 21st of October a proclamation was issued 
dissolving the legislative council, '*for divers good 
causes and considerations," and a week later a notice 
was published, containing a list of the new appoint- 
ments, eight out of the thirteen members of the former 
council being reelected. ^^ At the opening session, 
held on the r2th of December, the governor stated 
that only £135,639 out of the £216,400 voted for the 
public service of 1864 had been expended, the dis- 
bursements for the current month being estimated at 
£8,000, thus showing an expenditure less by £72,000 
than had been sanctioned. Meanwhile, however, the 
revenue had fallen short of the estimates by some 
£13,000. Under an act of the previous session, a 
loan of £100,000 had been authorized, against which 
they had drawn but £26,300, the remainder being 
available for the service of 1865. Among the items 

^5 Also to ordinances relating to patents, facilitating the formation of joint- 
stock mining companies, and for the relief of certain naval and military set- 
tlers. Speech of Frederick Seymour, in Jour. Legist. Council, B. C, 1864, 43. 

"5 The names of the members will be found in Id., 1865, after the table of 
contents. 



COLONIAL AFFAIRS. 691 

of expense for the past 3'oar was one of £16,000 for 
the suppression of the Chilkotin massacre/' of which 
Seymour gives a detailed account in his address. He 
regrets that several needed improvements have been 
delayed through lack of funds, among them being the 
establishment of a light-ship at the mouth of the 
Eraser. Finally he calls the attention of the council 
to certain resolutions passed by the assembly at Vic- 
toria in favor of a conditional union with British Co- 
lumbia under one governor. Expressing his own 
views on this subject, he remarks that, wliile it would 
be better for imperial interests that Great Britain 
should be represented west of the Bock}^ IMountains 
by a single ruler,^^ he does not think that at present 
British Columbia would gain by the suggested change, 
and advises them to consult only their local interests. 
At the next meeting the council responded, as usual, 
in meek and respectful phrase, and the business of the 
session commenced. 

Thus did the colonial ship of state sail forth on 
these untroubled waters, her course seldom disturbed 
by the faintest breath of popular discontent. Most 
of the measures brought before the council were ini- 
tiated by the attorney-general, those which passed to 
a third reading and received the governor's sanction 
relating mainly to municipal affairs, public improve- 
ments, and matters of local interest. ^'^ 

Let us turn now to Vancouver Island, where, as 
will be remembered, the first term of the legislative 
assembly expired in 1859. To the mention already 
made of this assembly^'' there is nothing worthy of 

" The crown refused to refund any part of this sum. 

'* As in case of war, in which event the officer in command of the naval 
forces might be seriously embarrassed by tiie conflicting policy of two gov- 
ernors. 

"Tables, showing the progress of the various bills introduced, will be 
found for each year in Jour. Leyisl. Council, B. 6'., facing p. 1. See also 
V0H.10I. Stilt. Brit. Col. (ed. 1S77), passim; Acts and Ordin. Western Col., 
lSoS-70, passim. 

"'tiee pages 22-7, this vol. 



592 UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

note to be added, except that the members stoutly 
refused to grant supplies, or become responsible for 
debts incurred by the Hudson's Bay Company. When 
the second legislature met, in 1860, the connection 
between the colony and the company having then 
been dissolved, the question was again brought for- 
ward, Who was to pay the debts of the latter? It 
was resolved that, as the former assembly had in- 
curred no responsibility, the present one would adopt 
the same policy, and leave the company to settle its 
claims with the home government. 

For the year 1861 the legitimate revenue of the 
colony was £25,291; for 1862, £24,017;^^ for 1863, 
£30,000; and for 1864 it was estimated at £37,704. 
The receipts for the last of these 3^ears were increased 
by sums due from British Columbia, advances to 
crown agents in London, balance of loan, and other 
sources, to about £77,000, while the expenses were 
set down at £59,062, of which £15,616 was for pub- 
lic works and buildings, and £10,360 for roads, streets, 
and bridges. It is worthy of note that only £1,000 
was devoted to educational purposes during this j'ear, 
while the appropriation for police and jails was about 
double that sum.^^ 

In 1864 the white population of Vancouver Island 
was estimated at about 7,500, or somewhat less than 
that of British Columbia, the rate of taxation being 
nearly £8 per capita, as against £24 in the latter col- 
ony. The principal sources of revenue at this date 
were from land sales and liquor licenses, from a tax of 
one per cent on real estate, and from the sums col- 
lected under the trade licenses amendment act of 
1862.^^ By the provisions of this act, merchants and 

"* The reason for the slight decrease of this year was that the instalments 
due by farmers on land purchased from go\ernment were postponed on ac- 
count of losses sustained during an unusually severe winter, llacjie's V. I. 
and B. C.,Z20. 

'^For the administration of justice, £721 was voted; for the mail service, 
£2,360; for light-houses, £1,400; and for charitable allowances, £550. Id., 
319. 

'^The real estate tax produced £13,060; trade licenses, £5,516; liquor 
licenses, £4,S00j and laud sales, £6,382. Id., 318. 



ECONOMY. 593 

traders were required to pay an annual assessment, 
varying, according to a graduated scale, from £2 a 
3^ear for those whose sales were less than £200, to 
£60 a year for those whose receipts exceeded £100,- 
000. For bankers and auctioneers the license was 
£50 a year; for lawj^ers and real estate agents, £10; 
for civil engineers, architects, surveyors, and proprie- 
tors of billiard-saloons, £5. 

In one of the most distant portions of the British 
empire we have now two colonies mustering together 
some twelve or thirteen thousand white inhabitants, 
paying on an average under this crude system of tax- 
ation nearly £19 a year per capita, or at least eight 
times the rate levied in the mother countr}^, with her 
army and navy, her peers, her princes, her paupers, and 
her frightful incubus of debt. Under such conditions, 
the extinction of the two colonies was but a mat- 
ter of time. It did not follow that because Great 
Britain had placed herself in the condition of a coun- 
try squire, whose estates though heavily encumbered 
were not hopelessly encumbered, her youngest off- 
spring should thus follow her example. Loans for 
British Columbia were barely negotiable in the Lon- 
don market,^* and could be placed only at excessive 
rates of interest. Moreover, her sister colony, sepa- 
rated by less than twenty leagues from the Mainland, 
was undergoing a severe financial depression, occa- 
sioned in part by over-trading and speculation. Some- 
thing must be done in the matter, and at least the 
expenditure for the civil list might be curtailed. 
When, therefore, Captain Kenned}^ successor to 
Douglas at Vancouver Island, landed at Victoria in 
1864, he was received with every manifestation of 
loyalty, enthusiasm, and respect; but his gratification 
was somewhat modified by the announcement that 
his salary, and that of other officials, had been struck 

"The total debt of British Columbia in 1S67, deducting sinking fund in< 
vestments, was SI, 002,983; of Vancouver Island, §293,698. Jour. Legist. 
Council, B. C, 1867, app. xvii. 
Hist. Bkit. Col. 33 



594 UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

from the estimates for the year by a unanimous vote 
of the legislature.-^ 

The estimates for the civil list of this jear were 
proposed by the duke of Newcastle, his grace inti- 
mating that the crown lands, then about to be con- 
veyed by the Hudson's Bay Company to the home 
government in liquidation of claims, should be assigned 
to the legislature, and that from the proceeds of sales 
the salaries of the governor and other officials should 
be paid. But the sales from crown lands for the 
previous year had amounted only to £4,500, while 
the necessary expenses of government were £35,000. 
The proposition of his grace was of course rejected, 
whereupon her Majesty's government decided to unite 
the two colonies, though probably somewhat against 
the will of the people of British Columbia. In view 
of the facts that have been stated, however, it does 
not appear that the ministry were to blame in the 
matter. A yearly expenditure of £69,000 for the 
mere civil list of the two colonies, with their handful 
of inhabitants, was a somewhat novel phase in the 
progress of British colonization. 

According to tlie provisions of the union act, enti- 
tled the British Columbia act of 1866, the authority 
of the executive government and legislature of British 
Columbia was extended over Vancouver Island, the 
number of members of the lesfislative council beinof 
increased to twenty-three. The existing ordinances 
were to remain in force until otherwise determined by 
law, except that those relating to the customs reve- 
nues of British Columbia were to be extended to 
Vancouver Island, and that in the governor were 
vested all powers as to the appointment of warehous- 
ing ports, and of warehouses in such ports, together 
with all matters relating thereto. Nothing contained 
in the act was to take away or restrict the authority 

''^Kennedy was extremely courteous in manner, somewhat of a flatterer, 
and an excellent speaker; but the people soon observed that these •were about 
the best characteristics he possessed. In truth, there was at this date little 
for a governor to do except to be courteous. Elliott's B. C. Politics, MS. 



END OF THE VA^sXOUVER COLONY. 593 

of the governor to make regulations for the peace, 
order, and good government of the two colonies, 
either before or after the union. "^ This act, which 
bears date the 6th of August, 1866, was proclaimed 
by the governor on the l7th of November in the 
same year,^^ and thenceforth the colony of Vancouver 
Island ceased to exist, the attorney-general, a few 
weeks later, introducing a bill for assimilating its 
laws with those of British Columbia. 

The confederation, or rather the legislative union 
of Upper and Lower Canada, was a measure first 
mooted in 1822, and one that took effect in 1841. 
Nevertheless, the party contests between the inhab- 
itants of the two regions, divided as they were by 
race, religion, and interests, became so bitter that, as 
the reader is aware, matters came to a dead-lock. 
Hence the idea of a legislative union of all the Brit- 
ish American colonies, though reserving to each its 
individuality and its local government. Moreover, 
the dangers to which they were afterward exposed 
by the possible issues of the civil war formed an ad- 
ditional incentive to their union. Thus it was that 
the leaders of the several parties put aside their 
issues and agreed to make common cause, to which 
the home government responded by passing the Brit- 
ish North America act of 1867, whereby the colo- 
nies could unite at will in a confederation to be 
known as the Dominion of Canada. 

After the jiassage of this act none were more eager 
to be admitted into the confederation than the people 
of British Columbia; but this was not yet to be. On 
the 17th of December, 1868, the legislature met for 
the first time at Victoria, according to the expressed 
desire of the colonists, including the residents of the 

'Mc< 29 and 30 Vict., in Jo^ir. Legid. Council, B. C, 1867, 1-2. By 
this act, 21 ami 22 Vict., to provide for the government of B. C, and 26 and 
27 Vict., to dcGne the boundaries of the colony, and for other purposes, were 
repealed. 

*' For copy of proclamation, see Id., 2. 



596 UXION AND CONFEDERATION. 

mainland, though very much against the governor's 
wish.^^ His excellency remarked that it was his 
pleasing duty to state that the colony did not appear 
to be in a condition to create despondency; that by 
unmitigated economy he had reduced the expenses of 
government by $88,092, and that he had never taken 
upon himself '*to appoint a higher officer than a con- 
stable." They must wait, however, for admission as 
a province until the intervening territory under con- 
trol of the Hudson's Bay Company ^'^ should have 
been incorporated. 

The people of British Columbia did not want such 
government. They would very much have preferred 
such a ruler as Douglas, with his courtly mien, and 
even with his reckless disregard for the credit of the 
colony, to this negative and timid magistrate. Though 
his lavish hospitality may have saved him from being 
unpopular, at his decease, which occurred in June of 
the following year, there w^ere few who sincerely 
mourned his loss.^'^ In his successor, Anthony Mus- 
grave, C. M. G., who held office until the 1st of July, 
1871, or, as it is known, the first dominion day, the 
people gladly recognized a governor whose tact, de- 
cision, and experience fitted him for the control of men. 

^^ Seymour's address to the council on the proposed change of the seat of 
government is simply pitiful. It concludes: 'He trusts that no immediate 
action may be urged upon him,' but, should any be required, 'he will humbly 
recommend to the queen that he and his successoi's in office be commanded to 
reside permanently in the present capital of the colony.' Joxir. Legisl. Coun- 
cil, B. C, 1SC7, C2. To this the business men, farmers, miners, etc., of 
the island and mainland responded that Victoria was the most suitable spot. 
A petition to this purport was signed by 50 residents of New Westminster. 
Among the 1,467 inhabitants of Vancouver Island who petitioned his excel- 
lency were W. J. Macdonald, mayor of Victoria, and Roderick Finlayson, 
chief factor H. B. Co. From the mainland the total signatures numbered 
842. Id., ap. xvi. In the legislative council a resolution was passed, by an 
affirmative vote of 14 to 5, that Victoria was the most suitable place for the 
seat of legislature. Id., 1868, 11-12. 

2' Manitoba. 

^^ Seymour died on board H. M. S. Sparrowhawh, while on a trip to the 
northern portion of the colony. Cooper's Maritime Matters, MS., 21. If we 
can believe Mr Elliott, he spent all his salary and impaired his private fortune 
by his foolish hospitality. In British Columbia Politics, by A.C. Elliott, MS., 
I have been furnished with a brief sketch of the cliaracteristics and career of 
the rulers of B. C. and V. I. , from the rt^gime of Gov. Seymour to that of 
Gov. Trutch, with some incidents in the political annals of both colonies. 



GOVERNOR MUSGRAVE. 597 

In his inaugural address, Musgrave expressed his 
conviction that, under certain conditions, which he 
thought it would not be difficult to arrange, the colony 
might derive substantial benefit from the union, and 
that with the advice of his council he had prepared a 
scheme which he would cause to be laid before them ; 
that, while the views of her Majesty's government 
had been clearly and forcibly expressed on the matter,^^ 
there was no desire to urge the union, unless it were 
in accordance with the wishes of her Majesty's sub- 
jects. The resolutions presented by Musgrave were 
adopted with but slight alterations.^^ 

A delegation was sent to Ottawa to lay before the 
dominion government the resolutions adopted by the 
council, to explain the views and wants of the colony, 
and to ascertain how far they could be fulfilled. In 
his address at the opening of the session of 1871, the 
governor laid before the legislature the report of the 
privy council of Canada on the subject, remarking 
that the terms accepted were as liberal as the colony 
could fairly expect, and in some respects more advan- 
tageous than those submitted by the colony. He 
therefore recommended them at once to pass an 
address to her Majesty, in accordance with the pro- 
visions of the British North America act of 1867, 
praying for admission.^"'' 

31 See Jour. Legisl Council, B. C, 1878, 28 et seq. On the 24th of 
April, 18G8, an address to the queen was moved, in which the conditinas of 
the union were laid down in a somewhat high-handed manner. An amend- 
ment was carried, in which it was declaimed that, while the council was in 
favor of the union, they were without sufficient information and experience 
of the practical working of confederation in the North American provinces to 
feel justified in defining the terms on which such a union would be to their 
advantage, . 

'^Ina despatch to Gov. Musgrave, dated Aug. 14, 1SG9, Earl Granville 
states that the queen would probably be advised before long to issue an order 
in council, incorporating in the dominion all the British possessions in N. Am. 
with the exception of B. C. The question therefore presented itself, M-hcther 
this single colony should be excluded. On that question tlie colonists did not 
appear to be unanimous; but, judging from his despatches, the prevailing 
opinion appeared to be in favor of union. He had no hesitation in stating 
that such was also the opinion of her Majesty's government. Seas. Papers, 
Brit. Col, ISSl, 139. 

^^Jour. Lrgisl. Council, B. C, 1871, 2. For proposed and accepted terms, 
Bee Scss. Papers, Brit. Col., 1881, 140-3. 



598 UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

According to the terms of the union of British 
Cohimbia with Canada, the latter was made Hable 
for the debts and obhgations of the colon}^ existing at 
the time. British Columbia, not having incurred Ha- 
bihties equal to those of the provinces then constitut- 
ing the dominion, was to be entitled to interest at the 
rate of five per cent on the difference between her in- 
debtedness and that of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
wick, pro rata of their population.^* For the support 
of her government and legislature a subsidy of $35,000 
a 3^ear was to be paid, together with a grant of eighty 
cents per capita of the inhabitants, then estimated at 
60,000,^^ such grant to be augmented according to the 
increase in population until it should amount to 400,- 
000, after which the grant should not be further in- 
creased. The dominion was to provide an efficient 
mail service fortnightly by steamer between Victoria 
and San Francisco, and twice a week between Victoria 
and Olympia, the vessels to be adapted for the con- 
veyance of freight and passengers. .Canada was to 
assume and defray all charges incidental to the ser- 
vices which, by the British North America act of 
1867, pertain to the general government, as the salary 
of the lieutenant-governor, the expenses of the su- 
preme and district courts, of the customs,^^ the postal 
and telegraph services. Pensions were also to be pro 
vided for those whose position and emoluments would 
be affected by these changes. 

British Columbia was to be represented in the sen- 
ate of the dominion by three members, and in the 
commons by six, this representation to be increased 

2* In 1871 the indebtedness of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick was $27.77 
per head. This provision was altered in the terms of the union act, assented 
to March 2, 1874, whereby B. C. was to receive from the dominion govern- 
ment from time to time sums of money not to exceed the difference between 
the actual debt and the allowed debt of the province. Message rel. to Terms of 
Union Act, 53. 

^^This is probably an exaggeration. In a work issued by the agent-gen- 
eral of the province in Loudon, containing much reliable and well-condensed 
information, and entitled Brit. Col. Inform, for Emirjrants, the population, 
including Indians, is estimated in 1872 at 45,000. 

2"^ The customs and excise duties were to continue in force until tlie Pacific 
coast was connected by rail with Canada. 



UNION WITH CANADA. 599 

from time to time under the act of 18G7, the pro 
visions of which were to apply to British Cohimbia as 
fully as if that colony had been one of the provinces 
originally united under the act. 

And now follow the tnost important clauses in the 
agreement, portions of which I present to the reader 
verbatim: "The government of the dominion under- 
take to secure the commencement simultaneously, 
within two years from the date of the union, of the 
construction of a railway from the Pacific towards 
the Rocky Mountains, and from such point as may 
be selected east of the Kocky Mountains towards the 
Pacific, to connect the seaboard of British Columbia 
with the railway system of Canada; and further, to 
secure the completion of such railway within ten years 
from the date of the union. And the government of 
British Columbia agree to convey to the dominion 
government, in trust, to be appropriated in such man- 
ner as the dominion government may deem advisable, 
in furtherance of the construction of the said railway, 
a similar extent of public lands along the line of rail- 
wa}^ throughout its entire length in British Colum- 
bia, not to exceed, however, twenty miles on each 
side of said line, as may be appropriated for the same 
purpose by the dominion government from the public 
lands in the north-west territories and the province 
of Manitoba. . .In consideration of the land to be so 
conveyed in aid of the construction of the said rail- 
way the dominion government agree to pay to British 
Columbia from the date of the union the sum of 
$100,000 per annum, in half-yearly payments in ad- 
vance. The dominion government shall guarantee 
the interest for ten years from the date of the com- 
pletion of the works at the rate of five per centum 
per annum on such sum, not exceeding £100,000 
sterling, as may be required for the construction of a 
first-class graving-dock at Esquimalt."^^ 

^' By the terms of union amendment act, assented to ^lar. 2, 1S74, Britisk 
Columbia was to receive from the dominion govenmient £50,000 toward the 
construction of the dock in lieu of interest. Alcssaje rcl. to Tains of Union, 53. 



600 UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

The care of Indians and the management of lands 
reserved for them were to be assumed by the domin- 
ion government. Tracts of such extent as it had been 
the custom of British Columbia to appropriate were 
to be conveyed for that purpose by the local govern- 
ment to the dominion government as they might be 
needed, and were to be held in trust for the use and 
benefit of the natives. 

Finally, the constitution of the executive and legis- 
lature was to remain as it existed at the time of the 
union, until altered under the authority of the British 
North America act, it being understood that the do- 
minion would consent to the introduction of responsi- 
ble government when desired by the inhabitants of 
British Columbia, and that it was the intention of the 
governor, under the authority of the secretary of state 
for the colonies, to amend the constitution of the legis- 
lature, by providing that a majority of its members 
should be elective, the province having also the right 
of specifying the districts for which the first election 
of members for the commons should take place.^^ 

It was provided that on the presentation of ad- 
dresses from the legislature of British Columbia and 
the Canadian houses of parliament, the union should 
take effect on such day as her Majesty might appoint. 
On the 20th of January, 1871, an address was adopted 
by the former, without a dissenting vote, and the 
above terms and conditions having been previously 
agreed to by a committee of the privy council of the 
dominion after considerable discussion with delegates 
sent from British Columbia,^^ the measure received 
the queen's consent and the union was consummated. 

No time was lost in taking advantage of the clause 
in the terms of confederation relating to the establish- 
ment of responsible government, which was in fact 
provided for before the agreement had received the 

^^The full text of the agreement will also be found in Jour. Legist. Council, 
B. a, 1S7I, 14-16. 

s^Trutcb.Helmcken, and Carrall. Id., 4. 



CONSTITUTION ACT. 601 

imperial consent. At a meeting of the council, held 
on the 12th of January, 1871, it was resolved that the 
governor be requested to transmit to the house, in 
accordance with his inaugural address, a bill increasing 
the number of elective members and excluding nomi- 
nated members, so that responsible government should 
come into operation at the first session of the legisla- 
ture subsequent to the union with Canada.*^ On the 
1 4th of February a bill received the governor's signa- 
ture, entitled the constitution act of 1871, whereby it 
was provided that the legislative council should be 
abolished and a legislative assembly substituted in its 
stead, the latter to be elected once in four 3'ears, and 
consist of twenty-five members, chosen by twelve 
electoral districts." No public contractor, and no per- 
son holding office whereto a salary or emolument of 
any kind was attached, payable from the revenues of 
the colony, was eligible as a member; though members 
of the executive council were eligible, provided they 
were elected while holding such office. The latter 
were to be composed of such persons as the governor 
might select, not exceeding five in number, and in the 
first instance were to include the colonial secretary, 
the attorney-general, and the chief commissioner of 
lands and works. The powers of the executive were 
to remain in force as they before existed, so far as they 
were unaltered by the constitution act, or by the Brit- 
ish North America act,^^ or by order of her Majesty 
in council, or by act of the British parliament.^^ 
A month later an act was passed, entitled the Quali- 

*" IL, 1S71, 9-10. The resolution was moved by Mr Helmcken. 

*' Afterward increased to 13. 

■'•' liy this act it was provided that the chief magistrate of the colony should 
rank as licut-gov., and bo appointed by the gov.-gen. of Canada, his responsi- 
ble advisers being the atty-gcn., who also held olhce as colonial secretary, the 
minister of linance, and the chief commissioner of lands and works. Thus it 
will be seen that the composition of the executive council was altered by the 
constitution act, though the alterations made in its powers were of slight im- 
portance, the principal one being that no part of the revenue of the colony 
should be paid out from the treasuiy except by warrant over the governor's 
signature. 

" For text of the constitution act, see Acts Legisl. Council, B. C, 1S71, 
No. 3 0/ 34th Vkt. 



602 UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

fication and Registration of Voters act of 1871/* In 
accordance with the provisions of which no person 
could be elected a member of the legislature who had 
not been a resident within the colony for at least one 
3'ear previous to the date of his election, or who was 
a minister of any religious denomination, whatever 
might be his rank or title. Concerning the franchise, 
the regulations were unusually restrictive, when com- 
pared with those of other British colonies, in some of 
which, as in New South Wales, suffrage exists in its 
simplest form, six months' previous residence being the 
sole qualification. In British Columbia the elector, if 
a British subject, must be able to read the English 
lanixuaixe, or, if a foreis^'n-born subject, the lanijuaofe of 
his native country, and must have resided in the colony 
for six months before sending in his claim to vote. He 
must possess a freehold estate, situated within his 
electoral district, of the clear value of $250, or a lease- 
hold estate of the annual value of $40, or be a house- 
holder or lodger occupying premises or apartments 
rented at the same valuation, or pay for board and 
lodging at least $200 a year, or must hold a duly 
recorded preemption claim or mining license, the for- 
mer of not less than one hundred acres.''^ 

Thus was British Columbia fairly launched on her 

" This being tlie short title, the act, in common with many others passed 
by the legislature, having a longer title for its heading, which reads in tiiis 
case, 'An act to amend the law as to the qiialification of electors and of elec- 
tive members of the legislature, and to provide lor the registration of persons 
entitled to vote at el(:;ctions of such members.' 

** Id., 1S71, No. 12 of 3Ifth Vict., p. 2. No foreign-born subject who had 
renounced his allegiance or become a citizen of a foreign state could be regis- 
tered under the pi^ovisions of this act until he had again taken the oath of 
allegiance to her Majesty. Witli I'Cgard to aliens, the regulations were the 
same as those existing in the dominion, as provided in cap. 66, 31st Vict., 
1S()S. After an uninterrupted residence for tln-ee years, an alien who had 
taken or caused to be tiled the oaths of allegiance and residence became en- 
titled to a certificate of naturalization, and enjoyed all the rights of a natural- 
born subject. Tlie only charges were 25 cents tor the certificate and 50 cents 
for recoi-ding. An alien-born woman when married to a British subject be- 
came thereby natui'alized. On the 22d of ]March the election regulations act, 
1871, received the governor's signature, its provisions relating mainly to the 
appointment and duties of returning officers, election clerks, and poll clerks. 
For text, see Jc^s Legisl. Council, B. C, No. 13 of SJfth Vict. Five days 
later the Corrupt Pi'actices Prevention act was passed, ' to pre\"ent bribery, 
treating, and undue influence at elections of members of the legislature.' 



COLONIAL PROGRESS. 603 

career as a province of the dominion under the forms 
of responsible government, and with a prospect of 
becoming at no very distant day one of the most val- 
uable of England's colonial possessions. Since the 
close of the Douglas regime the financial status of 
the colony had materially improved; her debt had 
been extinguished by the terms of the confedera- 
tion, while her expenditure had been greatl}'- reduced, 
the appropriation for the service of 1871 being $347,- 
535, or some $25 per capita of the white population, 
then estimated at about fourteen thousand, as against 
$90 for 1863. Meanwhile, as we have seen, roads 
had been opened to the principal mining districts, and 
public works had been pushed forward vigorously. 
Though slow of growth compared with other gold-bear- 
ing regions, in prosperity and industrial enterprise the 
province compared not unfavorably with many por- 
tions of the Pacific coast. Her cereal crops rivalled 
in quality those of California, and her root crops were 
not inferior to those of Oregon. On her pastures 
w^ere raised sheep and cattle whose flesh was not ex- 
celled in flavor by the stall-fed beef of Aberdeen and 
the South-Dow^n mutton of England. Manufactures 
were not inconsiderable, and were expanding year by 
year.**' The value of exports, including, besides gold, 
twenty-one articles of home production, was estimated 
for 1870 at $1,848,803, and of imports at $1,605,809, 
leaving a balance of trade in favor of the colony 
amounting to $242,994.*' Labor was in fair demand, 
at rates fully equal to those prevailing in California;*^ 
and a thrifty mechanic could save from each day's 
wages the price of an acre of land. 

*'^In 1S71 there were in various parts of the province 14 saw-mills, 11 
flouring mills, 3 breweries, 3 distilleries, 2 tanneries, 2 sash factories, a ship- 
yard, an irou-fouudery, a soap factory, aud a beet-sugar factory. B. V. Inform, 
for Emifjr. , 33-4. 

"During 1871, 292 vessels entered the ports of '^. C, with an aggregate 
tonnage of 131,696. Cleai-auces numbered 2Sj, theii tounage being 129,864. 

■"^Carpenters were paid §3 to $4 a day; masons, painters, plastLiers, and 
blacksmiths, §3.50 to $4; coopers, cabinet-makers, tinsmiths, and wheel- 
wrights, §4; common laborers, §2.50 a day; and farm laborers, §20 to §40 per 
month, with board. 



604 UNION AND CONFEDERATION. 

Not least among the noticeable features in the 
records of the colonial authorities is their kindly 
treatment of the natives ; and in later years the num- 
ber and extent of Indian reserves,*^ which were selected 
not because they were uninhabitable by white men, 
but with a view to the preservation of the different 
races, on sites well adapted to agriculture and grazing, 
and well suiDplied with timber and water. In 1860 
the native population was estimated, as we have seen, 
at 30,000,^** and in 1871 it was about the same num- 
ber. ^^ At the latter date Indians were largely em- 
ployed in the interior as laborers, herders, and farm- 
hands, those who understood how to treat them being 
glad, in return for their services, to feed and house 
them, paying them besides $20 to $30 per month. 
Some of them displayed ability as artisans; some were 
engaged in placer mining on the Thompson and Fraser 
rivers, and not a few had farms and cattle of their own. 

*^ For location of reserves in 1S62-3, see B. C. Ind. Land Question, 26, 29- 
36; for description of Kamloop, Shushwap, nos 1 and 2, Adams Lake, and 
Lower Fraser iliver reserves in 1866, see Id., 3S-9, 41-3, 47, 54-7; for sketch 
of Songish reserve and list of other reserves in 1869, Id., 64-8, 165-66; for 
lists, location, and area in 1871, Id., 95-6, 104-6; for correspondence relating 
to reserves in 1873-5, Jour. Le/jisl. Ass., 1875, app. 665-86; tor EeptCovi. Ex. 
Council concerning reserves in 1875, Sess. Papers, Brit. Col., 1876, pp. 57-72, 
165-328; for papers relating to reserves in 1877, hi. 1877, 4S3-4. For mission 
on Naas Elver in 1869, see B. G. Ind. Land Question, 63. In 1873-4 §54,000 
vas appropriated by govt for the expenses of reservations. Id., 154. 

*°See p. 75, this vol. 

*^ Chittenden estimates the Indian population of B. C. in 1882 at 35,000, the 
Haidahs and Chimsyans being among the most populous tribes. Travels in B. 
C. and Alaska, 12-13. For report on the condition of the Kootenai Sound 
Indians in 1883, see Sess. Papers, B. C, 1884, p. 325. The outbreaks that 
occurred among Indians before the gold discoveries were not, as we have seen, 
of a formidable nature. The more important ones that occurred later have 
already been mentioned. See p. 426-9, this vol. For Indian troubles at Van- 
couver Island in 1856, see Sacr. Union, Oct. 4, 1856; for massacre of miners by 
Indians at Nicola River, S. F. Bulletin, Oct. 5, 1858; for murders by Indians 
in 1859, Id., March 8, 1859, Sacr. Union, '^ov. 23, 1859; for depredations and 
disturbances in 1870, S. F. Bulletin, June 13, July 13, Nov. 22, 23, 1800; S. 
F. Alta, June 13, July 3, 1860; Sacr. Union, June 21, July 13, 1860; for out- 
rages in 1868, -S". F. Alta, June 28, 1868. In 1872 there was an Indian out- 
break at the Forks, during which a number of white men were massacred. Id., 
July 23, 1872. In 1879 an uprising was feared in the Kamloops district 
among the Nicola Indians. For an account of this affair, see British Colo- 
nist, Dec. 13, 14, 16, 18, 28, 31, 1879. For Ind. murders in 1884, see S. F. 
Call, Jan. 12, 1884. Small-pox among Ind., S. F. Bulletin, Jan. 22, 1863; 
Victoria Chronicle, in Sacr. Union, Jan. 24, 1863; S. F. Times, Se2>t. 30, 
1808; S. F. Call, June 28, 1868, Nov. 16, 1870. In the last of these years two 
thirdis of an entire tribe were swept away. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

1S54-1872. 

The Archipelago de Hako — San Juan Island OccuriED by the Hud- 
son's Bay Company— Customs Dues Demanded for the United 
States — Commissioners Appointed — Their Arguments — Indian 
Troubles — The Affair of the Hog — A Military Post Established 
BY General Harney — Arrival of British Men-of-war — And of 
the U. S. Steamer 'Massachusetts '—Protest of Douglas— Har- 
ney's Reply — Landing of U. S. Troops — Casey's Trip to Esqui- 
malt— Its Result— A Compromise Offered by Lord Lyons — Atti- 
tude OF President Buchanan — General Scott Ordered to the 
Pacific Coast— Negotiations— Harney Recalled— Arbitration and 
Decision. 

Since the treaty of 1846 the people of British 
Columbia and those of the United States had each 
regarded the group of islands forming the Archipelago 
de Haro, lying between the continent and the south- 
ern end of Vancouver Island, as belono^incr to them, 
according to the first articles of that compact, which 
reads as follows: "From the point on the 49th paral- 
lel of north latitude, where the boundary laid down 
in existing treaties and conventions between Great 
Britain and the United States terminates, the line of 
boundary between the territories of her Britannic 
Majesty and those of the United States shall be con- 
tinued westward along the 49th parallel of north lati- 
tude to the middle of the channel which separates 
the continent from Vancouver's Island; and thence 
southerly through the middle of said channel, and of 
Fuca Straits, to the Pacific Ocean; provided, how- 
ever, that the navigation of the said channel and 

(6C5) 



606 



THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 



straits, south of the 49th parallel of north latitude, 
remain free and open to both parties." 

A reference to the map of this region shows a pas- 
sage about seven miles in width between the archi- 
pelago and "Vancouver Island, known as the Canal de 
Haro. Between the islands appear numerous small 
passages, and between the group and the mainland, 
another channel less than half the width of Canal de 
Haro, known as Rosario Strait, lying some distance 








/ WHIDBEY I." 






Pc■,-tWrfg^tj_f^.^■M:^ 






Archipelago de Haro. 

to the east of the point in the middle of the channel 
at the 49th parallel. The archipelago consists of San 
Juan, as the Spaniards had named it — Bellevue, as 
the English called it — Orcas, Lopez, Waldron, Blake- 
ley, Decatur, Shaw, and several smaller islands. 
The largest, San Juan, contains about 50,000 acres.^ 

iRept of R. H. Crosbie, in H. Ex. Doc. 77, xii. 7, 36th Cong., 1st Sess.; 



BEGINNING OF THE QUARREL. G07 

About the time that Fort Victoria was founded, 
and while the governments of Great Britain and the 
United States knew but httle of the actual hydrog- 
raphy of the region, and were discussing the line of 
actual boundar}^ the Hudson's Bay Company took 
possession of San Juan, by placing upon it a few of 
their servants in charge of their herds. On the other 
hand, the Oregon legislature, in 1852, organized 
Whidbey Island and the Haro Archipelago into a dis- 
trict called Island county, which became, by the divis- 
ion of Oregon in 1853, a part of Washington. 

In 1854 the collector of customs for Puget Sound, 
I. N. Ebey, first came in conflict with the Hudson's 
Bay Company, the latter having recently imported a 
large number of sheep, cattle, horses, and hogs, and 
placed them on the island of San Juan, for which 
customs dues were demanded by the collector. Ebey 
found on the island Charles J(5hn Griffin, a clerk of 
the company and a colonial justice of the peace, who 
claimed it as British territory, and who at once noti- 
fied Governor Douglas of Ebey's pretensions. The 
latter repaired to San Juan harbor in the company's 
steamer Otter, bringing with him the collector of 
customs for the port of Victoria, Mr Sankster, who, 
going on shore, demanded Ebey's business on the 
island, of which he was bluntly informed. Sankster 
then gave notice that he should seize all vessels and 
arrest all persons found navigating the waters west of 
Rosario Strait and north of the middle of the strait 
of Fuca. To this Ebey replied that he should leave 
upon the island a deputy collector of customs, who 
would discharge his duty, and that he trusted no 
persons would be so rash as to interfere with its 
performance. Sankster then suggested that Ebey 
should go on board the Otter and confer with Gov- 
ernor Douglas, which invitation was declined. Sank- 
ster then carried the British flag ashore, hoisting it 

Olympia Transcript, July 18, 18GS; Milton's San Juan, 14-28; Sen. Doc. 29, 
»., 40lh Cong., 2d Sens., geographical memoir, with maps. 



608 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

over the quarters of the company's servants, Ebey at 
the same time flinf^ins^ to the breeze the United States 
revenue flag which he carried in his boat. Sankster 
then landed a boat's crew from the Otter, and pre- 
pared to take up his quarters on the island, while 
Governor Douglas returned to Victoria. Ebey the 
next morning swore in his deputy, Henry Webber, 
in presence of Griffin and Sankster, and left the 
island, fully expecting that Webber would be arrested 
and taken to Victoria.^ A writ was indeed served on 
him,^ but as he refused to obey, the colonial author- 
ities refrained from pushing the matter further. 

The same year the property on San Juan Island 
was assessed by the officer whose duty it was to ap- 
praise the property of Island county ; but the collec- 
tion was not enforced until March 18, 1855, when the 
sheriff of Whatcom county, Ellis Barnes — San Juan 
and the adjacent islands having been attached by the 
legislature of 1854-5 to Whatcom — seized and sold* 
thirty or more of the sheep belonging to the Hudson's 
Bay Company at auction.^ These proceedings caused 
Governor Stevens in 1855 to address a communication 
on the subject^ to the secretary of state, who instructed 
him that the territorial officers should abstain from 
all acts on the disputed ground calculated to provoke 

^Olympia Pioneer and Dem., May 13, 1854. 

^ The British colonial authorities, call the archipelago San Juan county. 

*I am indebted to Elwood Evans for a valuable collection of papers on the 
'Northwest Boundary between Great Britain and the United States,' in which 
I find, p. 33-5, a statement of these occurrences, taken from the Bichmond 
Whig of July 19, 1860, and copied into the National Intelliyencer, Wasiiing- 
ton, D. C. 

*For this seizure the company subsequently presented a claim of about 
$15,000. The bill made out by Griffin was for 34 imported rams, which were 
seized and sold, estimated to be worth $3,750. The remainder was for losses 
sustained in consequence of Sheriff Barnes' violent acts in driving the sheep 
into the woods, and the cost of collecting such as were not altogether lost. 
The American authorities state that Griffin iiimself caused the sheep to be 
dispersed in order to evade a seizure, and that those taken were a band wliich 
they found in a corral in a remote part of the island. The men who accom- 
panied the sheriff were Mr CuUen, county comnussioner and ageut of the 
Puget Sound Coal Mining Company, E. C. Fitzhugh, afterward lieut-col of 
volunteers and associate justice, and two others, who became purchasers, at 
low prices, of the company's blooded stock. S. F. Alia, July 31, 1863; U, 
Ex. Doc. 77, 9, 36th Cong.', 1st Sess. 

8 See Wash. Jour. Council, 1854, 191. 



JOINT OCCUPATIOX. 609 

conflicts, ''so far as it can be done without impl3^ingf 
the concession of an exchisive right over the premises," 
and that the title ought to be settled before either 
party should forcibly exclude the other. He prom- 
ised, moreover, to notify the British government, and 
to have the boundary established at an early date/ 
Deputy Collector Webber remained on San Juan 
Island only about one year, when fear of the northern 
Indians forced him to leave it. He was succeeded by 
Oscar Olney, whose stay lasted but a few months for 
the same reason, and who was replaced by Paul K. 
Hubbs. Each of these Americans was compelled at 
different times to seek the protection of Mr Griffin, 
clerk of the Hudson's Bay Company, and British 
magistrate on the island. This was always cheerfully 
rendered, but the company never did anything to pre- 
vent the recurrence of these incursions from the north 
coast, which tended to frighten away American set- 
tlers. 

The sheriff of Whatcom county continued regularly 
to impose taxes on the island, but without again en- 
forcing their collection, until in 1859 they amounted 
to 6935. The customs inspector pursued the same 
course, merely taking account of the goods landed and 
vessels arriving. In 1859 the Hudson's Bay Company 
had on San Juan Island, besides Griffin, eighteen 



' Milton's San J^ian Island, 5C-7. This compilation, made by Viscount 
Milton, and published at a time when the boundary qiiestiou was about to be 
submitted to arbitration, is valuable as a collection of documents, but as an 
argument is without force. The advantage it claimed on the side of Great 
Britain was in pointing out the blunders of American explorers, who, by their 
errors, gave weight to the British claim. For example, FnJmont's maps are 
adduced as proof, when Fremont's acquaintance with Puget Sound was no 
greater tlian Milton's, both being borrowed from otlier authorities, and those 
by no means correct. According to Anderson's II id. N. W. Coast, MS., 31- 
6, Wilkes, in a private letter to him in 1841, gave an opinion which would 
have gone far in settling the arbitration in favor of Great Britain had it been 
put in evidence. The people who settled the country and explored every 
nook and corner in canoes knew more about it than the so-called explorers at 
that time could know; hence Lord Milton had but little to rest his judgment 
upon. See Milton's <Sa7i Juan iVater Ilounaary Question, 'Loud.on, 18G9. An 
earlier work than Milton's, and less valuable, is Relations between the United 
States and Northwest British A77ierica, by James W. Taylor, Washington, 
18G2, a mere compilation, without judgment or force. 
Ui3T. Bbit. Col. o9 



GIO THE SAX JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

servants, three of whom only were white, and these 
were naturahzed citizens of the United States. The 
American settlers numbered twenty-nine, chiefly men 
who had drifted thither from the Fraser Kiver mines, 
or, not being able to reach that district, had decided 
to take land claims instead, the northern counties 
of Washino^ton receiving^ about this time considerable 
accessions to their population from the same source. 

The correspondence between the United States and 
Great Britain, on the subject of the north-west boun- 
dary, had led, in 1856-7, to the appointment of com- 
missioners by each government, to examine into or 
furnish the data upon which the line should be drawn 
through the straits east of Vancouver Island. The 
commissioners on the part of Great Britain were 
Captain Prevost and Captain Richards of the Royal 
Navy; on tlie part of the United States, Archibald 
Campbell, assisted by Lieutenant John G. Parke and 
George Clinton Gardner of the topographical engi- 
neers, and John F. Taylor and George P. Bond as- 
tronomers. Prevost left England in December 1856, 
in H. ]\I. S. Satellite, arriving at Esquimalt harbor in 
June 1857, Richards following in H. M. S. Plumper, 
v/hich did not arrive for several months later. The 
United States connnissioner had placed at his com- 
mand the surveying steamer Active, and the brig 
Fauntleroy, and arrived at Victoria about the same 
time with Prevost, the first meeting taking place on 
board the Satellite, June 27th, when the commissioners 
agreed as to their initial point of survey. 

At a meeting which took place in Semiahmoo Bay* 
in October, Prevost stated that he had verified the 
general accuracy of the United States coast survey 
map of 1854, and would take this chart as the one 

* There is a monument of iron on the north shore of Semiahmoo Bay 4 
feet high, 4J inches square at the top, and 6 inches square at the ba-^e, 
placed there to mark the boundary line. On the north side are the worda 
'Treaty of Washington,' and on the south side, 'June 15, 1S40.' Morse's 
Wash. Ter., MS., xxii. 10. See also B. Col. tikdches, MS., 24; Cong. Globe, 
1855-6, ii., ap. 15-23; Or. Argus, Nov. 29, 185G; //. Ex. Doc, xiii. 100, 40ih 
Cong., 3d ScfiS. 



A BOIIN'DARY QUESTION. 611 

upon which the general hne of boundary should be 
determined, leaving the correct tracing of the line to 
be carried out by the survejang officers. But when 
it came to the discussion of the treaty of 1846, Pro- 
vost argued that the Rosario channel would answer 
the language of that instrument, while Campbell con- 
tended for the Canal de Haro. 

At a meeting which took place the 27th,. Provost 
formulated his views as follows: "By a careful con- 
sideration of the wording of the treaty, it would seem 
distinctly to provide that the channel mentioned should 
possess three characteristics: 1st. It should separate 
the continent from Vancouver's Island; 2d. It should 
admit of the boundary line being carried through the 
middle of the channel in a southerly direction; 3d. 
It should be a navigable channel. To these three 
peculiar conditions the channel known as Bosario 
Strait most entirely answers." The arguments brought 
forward are too lengthy for even a review in these 
pages, and are moreover immaterial. 

Campbell's ansvv^er was, in substance, that the line 
of boundary described in the treaty began at the 
49th parallel, in the middle of the channel which sep- 
arated the continent from Vancouver Island, which 
point was clearty west of the Bosario Strait. As to 
the boundary line running continuously in a southerly 
direction from this point, or any other, that was im- 
possible. If it followed the Bosario Strait it deflected 
well to the east, and when it came to the strait of 
Fuca its course was north of west. The term * south- 
erly' could, therefore, be used only in a general sense. 
Bosario channel was not the main channel that sejDa- 
rated Vancouver Island from the continent, but one 
which separated certain islands from certain other 
islands, as did another navigable channel through the 
archipelago. And as to the navigability of the two 
channels, they were both pronounced good; but the 
Canal de Haro was, according to the latest surveys, 
"the widest, deepest, and best channel," besides being 



612 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

a much shorter communication between the gulf of 
Georgia and the Pacific Ocean than that by the way 
of Kosario Strait. 

This narro\ved the discussions dowm to what was 
in the minds of the framers of the treaty when it was 
drawn up; it being reasonably clear, from Campbell's 
jDoint of view, that the deflection of the boundary line 
from the 49th parallel was a concession intended to 
avoid cutting off the southern end of Vancouver 
Island, and thereby greatly injuring it as a British 
possession, but one that did not give to that govern- 
ment an}^ right over the archipelago to the east of it, 
which belonged to the continent; and the language of 
the plenipotentiaries was quoted in support of this 
position. 

Here was in fact the whole of the argument; and 
although it was long drawn out in voluminous corre- 
spondence, it never amounted to anything more. The 
British colonial authorities brought forward the claim 
of priority of occupation, the Hudson's Bay Company 
having kept their herds upon it ever since the estab- 
lishment of Fort Victoria in 1843; but as the treaty 
of 1846 abandoned to the United States all south of 
the 49th parallel, except the southern portion of Van- 
couver Island, it was claimed that prior occupancy 
could not affect the title, although prior occupation 
of an island in the midst of an archipelago constitutes 
title in international law. Two years were spent in 
a discussion which terminated in nothing, its most 
noticeable result being that it strengthened the 
feeling of American ownership among the people of 
Puget Sound, and led to a settlement of Americans 
to the number of twenty-nine, as I have said.^ In 
the mean time the survey was completed from the 
gulf of Georgia to the Columbia Biver, and the 
line marked by stone monuments at a distance of 
twenty miles apart, a trail being cut through the 

^Bossi's Souvenirs, 1S6-9L For a particular account of the boundary sur- 
vey, see //, Ex. Doc. 86, xiii. S3, 40th Cong. , 3d Sess. 



INDIAN TROUBLES. 613 

heavy timber for the placing of iron monuments at 
intervals of one mile. Durini^ the progress of the sur- 
vey the town of Seniiahraoo on the frontier sprang up, 
as also a settlement at Point Roberts, and in the min- 
ing region of the upper Columbia Amjerican Town, 
on the head waters of Kettle River. 

Before proceeding further with the story of the 
San Juan difficulty, it will be necessary to refer to a 
few incidents in which the affairs of Washington ter- 
ritor}^ and of the Hudson's Bay Company are some- 
what intermingled. The invasions of northern In- 
dians were the great drawback to the occupancy of 
San Juan, and of all that part of Washington border- 
ing on the straits. At Bellingham Bay in 1855-G 
there were but thirty white inhabitants. To protect 
themselves, they had erected a block-house with 
bastions inside of a stockade, being furnished from 
the United States vessels in the Sound with a howit- 
zer and detachment of twelve men to garrison their 
little fort.^*' Congress and the military authorities 
were more than once memorialized as to the defence- 
less condition of the lower coasts of Puget Sound, 
until, in 1856, General Wool announced his intention 
of establishing a post at Bellingham Bay as soon as 
he could spare the troops from the field. Accord- 
ingly, in the summer of 185G, when the war had been 
brought to a close west of the Cascades, Captain 
George Pickett was sent with a company of the 9th 
infantry to garrison a post about two and a half miles 
from the settler's block-house, xmd INIajor G. O. Haller 
to establish a post about the same distance from Port 
Townsend, with another infantry company. These 
were, however, mere specks on the long line of ex- 
posed coast, and seldom were the barbarities of the 
savage pirates of the north either prevented or pun- 
ished. The murder of I. N. Ebey in 1857, to which 
I have referred in my History of Washington, illus- 

^'^lioder's Bellingham Bay, MS., 21-2. 



614 THE SA:N' JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

trated the powerlessness of a handful of infantry to 
deal with these dangerous foes. 

The first official act of McMuUin, who was ap- 
pointed governor of the territory about this time, 
was to visit Douglas at Victoria, and ascertain w^hether 
tlie latter would join in an attempt to take the guilt}^ 
individuals; but Douglas could do nothing which 
m'lght bring on a war with their tribe without first 
obtaining the sanction of the home government,^^ 
and would not have wished in any case to involve 
the company in a war with these sea-kings, who, like 
the barbarous northmen of Europe, revelled in visions 
of blood. McMuUin had neither an army nor navy 
at his command, and Ebey's death, with that of many 
others, went unavenged. 

San Juan Island lay directly in the route of the 
northern Indians, w^ho paid many unwelcome visits to 
its shores, while on account of the then peculiar po- 
litical situation of the island, no troops could be sta- 
tioned there, nor any adequate defence of the settlers 
be made. On the 29th of May 1859, the schooner 
Caroline, Captain Jones, fell in with three large canoes 
filled with northern Indians, evidently bent upon mis- 
chief On being hailed and questioned as to their 
destination, they replied they were going to Blunt or 
Smith Island, where a light-house had been erected, 
and where the only residents were the light-keeper, 
Vail, and his family. The captain of the schooner 
immediately turned back and informed Vail of his 
danger, urging him to leave the place without delay. 
This he did, going on board the schooner which sailed 
for Port Townsend. But Vail's deput}^, J. K. xlpple- 
gate, chose to remain. He barricaded the doors and 
windows of Vail's house, and prepared for defence, 
knowing that help would be sent from Port Townsend 
at the earliest moment possible. Hardly had his 
preparations been completed when the Indians landed, 

" Olympia Pioneer and Dcm., Oct. IG, 1S57. 



APPLEGATE AND THE INDIANS. C25 

and approached the house, endeavoring to induce 
Applegate to leave it, which he dechned to do. 

In the mean time the schooner had run over to Port 
Townsend, and a volunteer company was quickly 
raised, ^^ which, placing itself under the command 
of Deputy Sheriff Van Valzah, proceeded to Blunt 
Island, where they arrived the next morning, having 
been delayed by variable winds. The Indians, on 
seeing the schooner about to land, ran to their canoes 
with the intention of boarding her, but she put off 
before the wind, and their design was frustrated. 
Then, through their interpreter, they challenged the 
volunteers to fisjht, which the latter declined doin;;-, 
being only twenty in number, to eighty or ninetj^ of 
the natives. Their errand was simply to rescue 
Applegate if possible, whom they had little hope of 
finding alive, but who had kept the Indians from 
forcing an entrance to his lonely fortress throughout 
the night. A landing was effected, and the Indians 
departed, ostensibly tor Victoria, vowing vengeance 
against Captain Jones and a half-breed sailor who 
had first warned Jones of their designs. On the fol- 
lowing day, however, as Applegate passed the tower 
window in the light-house, he was shot at by a party 
of these Indians in ambush. He returned their fire, 
and wounded one of them, when they finally left the 
island. ^^ Vail brought his family back to their home, 
but the feeling of insecurity was great, inasmuch as 
the Indians had declared they were seeking revenge 
for the hanging of three of their tribe at Port Towns- 
end for previous murders. 

Two weeks before the affair of Blunt Island, a 
meeting had been called at Port Townsend to con- 
sider the best means of preventing the northern In- 
dians, then on a visit to Victoria, from landing at the 
former place; and it was resolved to give notice to 

^^ This comi^any included three of the famous Chapman troupe of play- 
actors, who crossed tae plains, and were the lirst regular theatrical company 
a3 far north and west as the Columbia and Paget Sound. 

"Letter of J. K. Applegate, in Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Jmie 17, IS39. 



616 THE SAX JUAX ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

them that they would not be permitted to visit Port 
Townsend, committees being appointed to keep strict 
watch, and to use the best means in their judgment 
for preventing their approach, while Major Haller was 
requested to cooperate.^* 

A crisis was, however, approaching which involved 
the international as well as the Indian question. One 
Lyman A. Cutler, who had located himself on San 
Juan Island in April 1859, and planted a garden, was 
nmch annoyed by the predatory habits of a hog be- 
longing to the Hudson's Bay Company, and on the 
15th of June he shot and killed the offending animal. 
He then called Griffin and offered payment for it, but 
the latter claiming $100, Cutler refused the demand. 
On the following day A. G. Dallas, son-in-law of 
Governor Douglas, with Tolmie and Fraser of the 
colonial council, arrived at the island in the company's 
armed steamer Beaver, when Dallas peremptorily 
claimed the island to be British soil, and ordered 
Cutler to pay the $100 or be taken to Victoria for 
trial. Cutler refused to do either, threatening to kill 
any who should try to force him.^^ 

After this encounter Dallas returned with his party 
to Victoria, when it was determined to place a magis- 
trate on the island, and to arrest Cutler. Meanwdiilc, 
as will be remembered, the Pacific coast portion of 
the Hudson's Bay Company's territory had been 

^* One resolution of the meeting reveals the cause of their invasions as well 
as the social condition of tlie country: ' That all men having northern women 
be notified that if they do not, on or before the 1st day of June, send the same 
out of the country, that legal action will be commenced against them, as by 
act passed January 23, 1857.' From this it appears that the legislature had 
found it necessary to interfere with the practice of cohabiting with women of 
tlie British Columbia tribes, whereby occasion was given to their male rela- 
tives to visit the settlements. 

'^ This alTair is differently represented by Milton, who says that Dallas and 
GrifBn only remonstrated with Cutler, who threatened to shoot any other of 
the company's stock wliich should interfere with him. San Juan, 254-5. 
Oiher British writers say that he threatened to shoot Dallas; but the Ameri- 
can authorities and the deposition of Cutler agree with the above. //. Ex. 
Doc. 65, ix. 55, 36th Concj., l.si Sess.; Roder's Bdlingham Bay, MS., 33-4; 
Grover's Pub. Life in Or., MS., 68; Morse's Watih. Ter., MS., xv. 15-lG; 
Dean's Settlement of Vane. Ide, MS., 11-12; American State Papers, 260. 
Cutler died at Snanish settlement in 1877. 



A ^IILITARY POST. 617 

declared British colonies. In May of this year the 
American settlers at San Juan petitioned General 
Harney, the commander of the military department 
of Oregon, to send them a small guard of twenty 
soldiers as a protection against the northern Indians, 
which the general, ^Yith the usual reluctance of mili- 
tary officers to credit the alarms of citizens, withheld. 
In the following July, however, being on a tour of 
inspection of his department, and having paid a com- 
plimentary visit to Douglas, he ran over to San Juan 
to see for himself the condition of the Americans, 
and to take some notes concerning the value of the 
disputed territory in a military point of view, the 
British at this time terming San Juan the Cronstadt 
of the Paciiic and the key to the gulf of Georgia. 
The settlers, taking advantage of their opportunity, 
addressed another petition to Harney, asking for pro- 
tection from the natives, who a short time before had 
connnitted several murders, and of whom they stood 
in constant dread,^^ the petitioners taking occasion to 
add that the island was United States territory, and 
that they had a right to claim a sufficient military 
force to prevent Indian outrages and encourage set- 
tlement. At the same time the general was informed 
as to the affair of the hog, and that Dallas had come 
in an armed vessel to take Cutler to Victoria. After 
a week's reflection he decided that if the British au- 
thorities could proceed to usurp sole jurisdiction of 
disputed territor}^ so could he. Accordingly, on the 
18th of July he issued an order to Captain Pickett 
to transfer his company from Fort Bellingham^^ to 
San Juan Island, and the steamer Massachusetts was 

'"The petition was signed by J. M. Haggaret, Samuel McCauly, J. E. 
Higgius, Charles H. Hubbs, L. A. Cutler, William Butler, J. D. WaiTen, H. 
Wliarton, Jr, John Witty, B. S. Andrews, John Hunter McKay, Noel Ent, 
Micliael Farris, George Perkins, Alexander McDonald, Peter Johnson, Angus 
iMcDouald, William Smith, Charles McKay, D. W. Oakes, Paul K. Hubbs, 
Jr, and Paul K. Hubbs, Sr. MUtoii's San Juan Island, 257. 

" Fort Bcllingham was established by Colonel Casey in ISjG, and was the 
second established on the Sound, Fort Townsend being located immediately 
after it. Wash. Tei: Shetches, MS., 100-2; Eldridfje's Sketch, MS., 29; Ebey'a 
Journal, MS., iii. 49. 



618 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

sent to remove the troops and government property. 
Major Haller's company was afterward ordered on 
board the vessel, which was to be employed wherever 
the services of the men were required. On the 27th 
Pickett landed his command on San Juan, going 
through the following formula: ''1st. In compliance 
with orders and instructions from the commanding 
general, a military post will be established on this 
island, on whatever site the commanding officer may 
select; 2d. All the inhabitants of the island are re- 
quested to report at once to the commanding officer 
in case of any incursion by the northern Indians, so that 
he may take such steps as he may deem necessary to 
prevent any further occurrence of the same; 3d. This 
being United States territory, no laws other than those 
of the United States, nor courts except such as are 
held by virtue of said laws, will be recognized or 
allowed on this island. By order of Captain Pick- 
ett." This document was signed by James W. For- 
sjth, second lieutenant in the 9th infantry, and post 
adjutant. 

It happened that the Satellite brought from Vic- 
toria on the same day Major De Courcy, whom Pro- 
vost was to install as stipendiary magistrate on the 
island by direction of Douglas. No magistrate ac- 
companied Pickett, although it has been so stated 
by a colonial writer. ^^ Great surprise was felt by De 
Courcy, whose commission was found to antedate the 
arrival of Pickett by one day. It could not there- 
fore be denied that the colonial government had 
intended to do what Pickett had done — establish 
jurisdiction, notwithstanding the agreement between 
the respective powers to refrain from such acts. 

These occurrences caused a profound sensation at 

^^ Donald Fraser, member of the executive council. On the 20th, two 
daj's after the military occupatiou, H. IL Crosbic, magistrate of Whatcom 
county, visited the island out of curiosity, as did many others, and linding 
an English magistrate there, remained to be useful to the Aoerican residents 
in case of an attempt to arrest Cutler, which was expected. Kept of Cros- 
bie, in H. Ex. Doc. 77, 36th Cony., Id Sess. 



READY FOR WAR. 619 

Victoria. Two war vessels, the Tribune, a thirt3"-gun 
frigate, and the Plumper, were ordered to join the 
Satellite at San Juan, to prevent the landing of more 
United States troops, while the Pleiades was sent to 
San Francisco with despatches for England. On the 
oOtli Griffin notified Pickett that the island was the 
property of and in occupation by the Hudson's Bay 
Company, and requested him to leave it with his men. 
" Should you be unwilling to comply with my re- 
quest," he added, " I feel bound to ajoply to the civil 
authorities." Pickett replied that he did not ac- 
knowledge the right of the Hudson's Bay Company; 
that he was on the island by virtue of an order from 
his government, and should remain until recalled by 
the same authority. ^^ This reply of Pickett's was not 
strictly true, though he may have so construed the 
situation. He was on the island by order of General 
Harney, his superior officer. Upon receiving Griffin's 
notice to leave, Pickett wrote to Colonel Casey at 
Fort Steilacoom, that the attitude assumed by the 
Hudson's Bay Company was threatening, and re- 
quested him to send the Massachusetts at once to San 
Juan. "I do not know," he said, "that any actual 
collision will take place, but it is not comfortable to 
be lying within range of a couple of war steamers. 
The Tribune, a thirty-gun frigate, is lying broadside 
to our camp, and from present indications everything 
leads me to suppose that they will attempt to prevent 
my carrying out my instructions." 

On the 31st Pickett was reenforced by another 
company from Fort Steilacoom, the Massachusetts 
conveying them to San Juan, together with camp 
equipage and all necessary tools for constructing 
quarters, besides a few howitzers. Prevost now has- 
tened to San Juan to hold an interview with Camp- 
bell, who was absent. From Pickett he learned, 
however, that he intended to obey orders, would pre- 
vent the landing of any inferior force, fight any equal 

" Miltoii's San Juan Island, 2G2. 



620 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

force, and protest against any superior force of Brit- 
ish troops being placed on the island, the proposition 
having been made of a joint military occupation by an 
equal number of troops of both nations, and rejected. 
The captain could well afford to assume this position, 
for he was aware that the American population of 
Victoria, outnumbering five to one the available Brit- 
ish force, and more skilled perhaps in the use of arms, 
would rally to his aid, and were indeed already in 
communication with the island. 

Douglas now issued a proclamation protesting 
against the invasion, and declaring that the sover- 
eignty of the island was and always had been vested 
in Great Britain.^" Armed with this demand, on 
the 3d of August Captain Hornby of the Tribune 
and commissioners Prevost and Bichards sought a 
second interview with Pickett, in which they 
again urged the joint occupation of San Juan by an 
equal force of both nations, and the establishment 
of military rule thereon until the boundary question 
should be settled by their respective governments. 
To this Pickett replied that he had no authority to 
make such an arrangement, and suggested that they 
might refer the matter to Governor Douglas and 
General Harney. He assured them that an}'- attempt 
to land a British force on the island before an ar- 
rangement was made would bring on a collision, 
which it was desirable to avoid, and advised them to 
remain in their present position until instructions 
were received from those in authority. 

Immediately after this interview Pickett wrote 
to Adjutant-general Pleasanton at Vancouver, of 
all that had taken place, and asked that instructions 
be sent him. The adjutant replied that General 
Harney approved of his course, and told him to allow 
no joint occupation. In answer to Douglas' protest, 
Harney addressed a communication to him, of which 
the following is part: "As the military commander 

""See Olympia Club, MS., 9-10. 



HARNEY AND DOUGLAS. 621 

of the department of Oregon, assigned to that com- 
mand by the orders of the president of the United 
States, I have the honor to state for your information 
that, by such authority invested in me, I have 
placed a mihtary command upon the island of San 
Juan to protect the American citizens residing on that 
island from the insults and indignities which the Brit- 
ish authorities of Vancouver Island and the establish- 
ment of the Hudson's Bay Company recently offered 
them, by sending a British ship of war from Vancou- 
ver Island to convey the chief factor of the Hudson's 
Bay Company to San Juan for the purpose of seizing 
and forcibly transporting him to Vancouver Island, 
to be tried by British laws. I have reported this 
attempted outrage to my government, and they will 
doubtless seek the proper redress from the British 
government. In the mean time I have the honor to 
inform your Excellency I shall not permit a repetition 
of that insult, and shall retain a command on San 
Juan Island to protect its citizens, in the name of the 
United States, until I receive further orders from my 
government.""^ 

To this Douglas replied that he was glad to find 
that the general was acting under orders from the 
president, and not by positive authority from the 
cabinet; denying that any British ship of war had 
been sent to San Juan to seize an American citizen; 
asserting that the Hudson's Bay Company's officers 
exercised no official power or authority, but declaring 
them as entirely distinct from the officers of the 
executive government as any other inhabitant of Van- 
couver Island; alleofinof that no outragre had been com- 
mitted on an American citizen, and no attempt had been 
made to arrest one and take him to Victoria for trial. ^^ 

** Harney committed an oversight in giving this as the sole reason for 
placing troops on the island, but tliis he afterward attributed to his indig- 
nation in view of the circumstances of the attempted arrest of Cutler. It 
made his statement differ from Pickett's. 

'■'Crosbie in his report in //. Ex. Doc. 77, 5-6, SGth Covfj., Ut Scsa., saya 
that Douglas' letter is incorrect on two points; that although it Mas the Beaver 
and not a man-of-war which brought Dallas to the island on the occasion re. 



\ 

622 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

Having made this denial of Harney's accusations, he 
called upon him, if not as a matter of right, at least 
as a matter of justice and humanity, to withdraw the 
troops stationed on San Juan, their presence still 
further complicating the question of sovereignty, and 
being calculated to provoke a collision between two 
friendly nations. But Harney replied as Pickett had 
done, that the step having been taken, he w^ould now 
await the expression of the president's pleasure in the 
matter.^ 

Daring the progress of this correspondence, Harney 
on the 7th of August ordered Casey to reenforce 
Pickett, and also wrote to the naval officer in com- 
mand of the Pacific squadron a request to send vessels 
to Puget Sound for the protection of American in- 
terests thereabout. On the morning of the 9th Casey 
left Fort Steilacoom with his whole command, con- 
sisting of three companies, and with howitzers and 
fifty tons of ammunition, on board the passenger 
steamer Julia. He was met by the surveying steamer 
Active, commanded by Captain Alden, who advised 
him not to attempt to land his troops on the island, 
as it would be likely to bring on a conflict, the Tribune 
lying broadside to the landing with her fires banked. 
Nevertheless Casey, somewhat imprudently if not 

ferred 1,0, Mr Dallas was at that time, and had Leen for some time previous, 
a member of the executive council, as was also Mr Donald Fraser, who accom- 
panied liim; and that immediately on their return without their intended 
prisoner a magistrate for the island was determined on, and Mr Grifnn 
directed to lodge a complaint against Cutler, not only on the ground of kill- 
ing the hog, but as a trespasser upon lands belonging to the company, of which 
Dallas was a director. The arrival of De Courcy as magistrate soon after 
conlirms CrosiJie's statement, as do the affidavits of Paul K. Hubbs and L. 
A.. Cutler, in //. Ex. Doc. (15, ix. 53, SGth Conrj., 1st Sess. See also statement 
of Captain Alden concerning an American, R. W. Cussans, who was forced to 
abandon his improvements on Lopez Island, and who was ordered, after pay- 
ing for a license to cut timber, to clear his vessel at the Victoria custom-house. 
(SVw. Doc. 29, i. S7, 30/ h Conrj., 2d Sess. 

"^ Milton's San Juan Island, 27.3-8. Harney was in error concerning 
8ome minor matters. For instance, he saya that when Douglas heard of the 
arrival of PickcttV command on the island he appointed a justice of the peace 
and other civil authorities, and sent them over on the Plumper to execute 
British laws on tiie island; wlien the truth was, as I have previously stated, 
the magistrate was commissioned one day before Pickett's arrival, and came 
over in the commissioner's steamer, the Satellite, instead oi the Plumper, as 
Harney sta:es. Paget ,Sound Ilcrcdd, Aug. 5, 12, and 26, 1839. 



AL^klOST A BATTLE. 623 

impudently, landed his men under the frigate's guns, 
thus throwing on the British officers the responsi- 
bility of beginning hostilities, though, as he relates, 
"he fully appreciated the terrible consequences of a 
hostile collision with his quasi enemy, which would 
probably be no less than involving two great nations 
in war."^* 

There were on service in Puget Sound, according 
to Harney's statement, five British vessels of war, 
with 167 guns and 2,140 men, of whom GOO were 
marines, or of the engineer corps; and, reports the 
general, ''this force has been emplo3^ed from the 27th 
day of July until the 10th daj^ of August — the day 
on which Colonel Casey with recnforcements reached 
the island — in using every means in its power, except 
opening fire, to intimidate one company of infantry 
but sixty strong. The senior officer of tliesp' British 
ships of war threatening to land an overpowering force 
upon Captain Pickett, he nobly replied that whether 
they landed fifty or five thousand men his conduct 
would not be affected by it, that he would open his 
fire, and if compelled, take to the woods fighting."-^ 
This statement of General Harney's must be taken 
wdth due allowance. There is little doubt, however, 
that Pickett intended to fight, and would, when joined 
by Colonel Casey's command, have opened fire on 
the British had they landed. He would then have 
retired to a strong position in the mountains, where 
he could hold them in check until the arrival of further 
reenforcements. 

Finding the aspect of affairs somewhat serious, 
however, the colonel sent an officer on board the 
Tribune, requesting that Captain Hornby would call 
on him with a view to a conference. The captain 
thought it would have been in better taste had the 
colonel called on him; nevertheless, he returned a 
courteous answer, and after despatching his business, 

'^ Casey's Rept, in H. Ex. Doc, 36th Cong., 1st Sess., ix., no. 65, p. 30. 
** Milton's 6'a/t Juan Island, 292; V. I. British Colonist, 



624 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

repaired to the camp, in compan}^ with Prevost and 
Campbell. Casey asked for the officer highest in 
command, and where he was to be found, and was re- 
ferred to Admiral Baynes, then on board the flag-ship 
Ganges at Esquimalt. The next day, accompanied 
by Captain Pickett and the American commissioner, 
the colonel steamed over to Esquimalt on board the 
ShuhricJc; and, per favor of Pickett, who, as he says, 
was courteously received, Douglas being also present, 
sent a note to the admiral desiring his presence, with 
a view to a conference. The request was declined, 
the admiral remarking that he should be most happy 
to see the colonel on board the flag-ship, "I was of 
the opinion," writes Casey, ''that I had carried eti- 
quette far enough in going tv/enty-five miles to see a 
gentleman who was disinclined to come a hundred 
yards to see me." Thereupon he returned in dudgeon 
to San Juan, and in his report a few weeks later ac- 
cused Hornby of tying. "^ Harney, when informed 
of Casey's visit, disapproved it, and the colonel was 
naturally mortified at the result of his attempted me- 
diation. 

It is admitted by British authorities that Douglas 
had ordered a landing of troops,^' but the admiral re- 
fused to do anything that might provoke a cohision, 
and especially to take advantage of an inferior force, 
even withdrawing his squadron, and keeping, merely 
for show of occupation, a single vessel at a time in 
the harbor of San Juan,^^ although, after the arrival 
of the Massachusetts, the Americans built a redoubt 
near the Hudson's Bay Company's station. '"^^ For this 

"^^ Casey's Bcpt, in H. Ex. Doc, SGth Conrj., M Sess., ix., no. 65, 31, G3. 
Macdonald, Brit. Col. and Vane. IsL, 258, says tliat Hornby, though under 
positive instructions from Douglas to declare war at once, took on himself the 
responsibility of tlelaying the execution of his orders until the arrival of the 
admiral, who was daily expected. 

^"^ See Milton's Saji Juan Question, 284; Macdonald' s B. C. and Vane. IsL, 
258. 

*** The Tribune was relieved by the Satellite, and the latter by the Pleiades. 
Overla7id Monthly, ii. 211. 

'^'The earthworks extended on the west water-front 350 feet, on the south- 
east 100, on the east 100, and on the north-east 150 feet, the north side being 



NEGOTIATIONS. 025 

line of conduct, though acting in disobedience to orders, 
Baynes was comphmented b}^ the British govcrn- 
ment.2'' 

On the day when Douglas issued his protest he 
addressed a messao'e to the colonial lesfislative council 
and assembly in extra session, in which he reiterated 
his belief in the right of Great Britain to the archi- 
pelago lying west of Bosario Strait. But owing to 
the condition of Victoria at this period of her history, 
the town being about as much American as English, 
many Californians and Oregonians having purchased 
property and entered into business there during the 
height of the Fraser Biver mining rush, compara- 
tively little impression was made by the governor's 
proclamations, the interest on the British side being 
confined chiefly to official circles. 

Meanwhile the commissioners could not agree, and 
the governments of Great Britain and the United 
States were in correspondence, endeavoring to come 
to a satisfactory^ understanding as to their rights — an 
impossibility, since both claimed exactly the same 
thing.'^^ On the 24th of August, however, Lord 
Lyons, minister at Washington, received a despatch 
from the foreign office, instructing him to offer a 
compromise, adopting as the line of water boundary 
between Vancouver Island and the continent a passage 
between Bosario Strait and the Canal de Haro, run- 
left open, with the garrison ground in its rear. The einbanlcment had a base 
of tvvcuty-live feet, and a width at top of eight feet. Inside of the redoubt 
wor3 five gun-platforms of earth, reaching to within two feet of the level of 
the parapet, each twelve by eighteen feet, two of them being at corners of 
the redoubt. The parapet was seven feet al)ove the interior, and the slope 
of the interior twelve to fifteen feet, the exterior slope being twenty-five to 
forty feet, with a ditch at the bottom from three to five feet deep. Morxe's 
Wash. Tcr., MS., XV. 44-5; V. I. BritUi Colonist. On the 21st of August 
Governor Gholson addressed a communication to General Harney, in which he 
informed him that there were less tiian 2,000 stands of arms in Washington, 
and that there was not a shot, sliell, or cartridge for any of them. Supplies 
were sent to Fort Steilacoom, subject to the order of the governor. 

'" Milton's San Juan Question, 2S4. This author intimates that Douglas 
bad not at this time the full powers of a British colonial governor. Macdon- 
ald takes a different view. 

^^ Annals Brit. Ler/is., x. 144-5; V. I. Briiish Colonist. 
Hist. Brit. Col. 40 



626 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

ning through the middle of the archipelago, which 
boundary would give Orcas and Lopez islands, the 
two largest after San Juan, to the United States. 
This concession Lord Lyons thought would fulfil the 
terms of the treaty, though the channel was inferior 
in some respects to the others ;^^ her Majesty's gov- 
ernment being willing for the sake of peace to resign 
its claim to three islands, though maintaining its 
right to all. At the moment this offer was made the 
intelligence was received at Washington of the occu- 
pation of San Juan by an armed American force. 

Harney first wrote to army headquarters on the 
subject on the 19th of July, but for some reason his 
letter was delayed, and does not appear to have 
reached the commander-in-chief until the 1st of Sep- 
tember, the latter sending it to the president; but 
the newspapers got hold of the information, and in 
this way Lord Lyons and other statesmen obtained a 
knowledge of it, when there was profound agitation 
in diplomatic circles. 

President Buchanan directed Acting Secretary of 
War Drinkard, on the 3d, to say to General Harney 
that although he believed the Canal de Haro to be 
the true boundary between Great Britain and the 
United States, yet that he had not anticipated so de- 
cisive a step being taken without instructions; that it 
was not customary to disturb the status of territory 
in dispute between friendly nations while the question 
was pending before a joint commission; but if the 
general had good reason to believe that the colonial 
authorities of Great Britain were about to do so by 
assuming jurisdiction over the disputed territory, he 
was right to anticipate their action, and the president 
V70uld wait for further details before expressing any 
opinion. 

Upon the 5th Lord Lyons held an interview with 

^2 This third middle passage was used by steamers during the Fraser River 
gold excitement, and surveyed by the Active, after which it M'as named, but 
Capt. Richards renamed it Plumper Pass, and as such it was offered to the 
United States as a boundary — a narrow channel between islands. 



SCOTT IN PC/GET SOUND. 627 

Mr Cass, when he was informed of the contents of 
Harney's despatch. On this occasion Secretary Cass 
notified Lyons that while the actual status should 
be maintained, no orders had been sent to withdraw 
the United States troops, but that they were to con- 
fine themselves to the protection of American citizens. 
Lyons understood this to mean that Harney was " by 
no means to take possession of San Juan, or set up any 
jurisdiction there" — a construction which Cass took 
pains to disavow before the London mail left the coun- 
try. In the mean time further despatches had been 
sent to Washington, with full explanations of the 
origin of the difficulty, the depositions of citizens, the 
orders of Harney, and the proclamations and corre- 
spondence of Douglas. So warlike did all these indi- 
cations appear, that the president felt constrained to 
order General Scott to proceed to the Pacific coast, 
and inquire more particularly into the causes of Har- 
ney's action. The adjustment of affairs was left to 
him, the instructions of the secretary of war being 
merely to preserve peace and prevent collisions until 
the title to the Island could be determined between 
the two governments; it being suggested that during 
the intervening period a joint occupancy might be 
permitted, in which American citizens should be 
placed on an equal footing with British subjects. 

After an interview with Harney"^ and Pickett at 
Vancouver, Scott proceeded to Puget Sound in the 
mail steamer Northerner, and took up headquarters on 
board the Massachusetts, addressing a letter on the 
25th to Governor Douglas, and proposing as a tempo- 
rary arrangement that separate portions of the island 
should be occupied by an equal number of troops of 
each nation, not to exceed one hundred, for the pro- 
tection of their respective countrymen in person and 
property. But Douglas, who, notwithstanding his 

"ItwassaiJ that when Haniey expressed a hope to Scott that matters 
might be allowed to remain as they were, Scott testily replied, ' Wcboth have 
our superiors. ' He then proceeded to show Harney that he was his superior. 
£vana' N. W. Boundary, 36. 



628 THE SAX JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

disavowal of any collusion between the Hudson's Bay 
Company and the colonial authorities, intended that 
the former should own San Juan, and who did not 
really desire the home government to become too 
much concerned in the militarj^ value of the Island, 
disapproved of a joint occupation, and expressed his 
desire to have the order of civil magistracy restored, 
remarking, as to the protection of the inhabitants, that 
"the principal protection that may be required is from 
dissensions among themselves, and not against hostile 
Indians, from whom I do not apprehend there is the 
slightest danger of molestation;" and further reminded 
the general that the sole reason furnished in Harney's 
correspondence with himself for placing troops on the 
island had been that he wished to protect citizens of 
the United States from the indignities offered them 
by the British authorities, of which they stood in no 
danger.^* His final argument for not accepting Scott's 
proposition was that the general was an accredited 
agent of the government of the United States, where- 
as he did not occupy that position toward the govern- 
ment of Great Britain. 

To this Scott replied that his government had not 
authorized him to evacuate San Juan; and to him it 
was apparent that if a magistracy could be legally 
established on neutral territory, it could not be made 
subject to the orders of any military ofScer, nor even 
to the direct control of the president, and therefore it 
would not be discreet at this juncture to intrust such 
an officer with matters affecting the peace of nations, 
"Besides," he continued, "I have adojDted the im- 
pression of my countrymen generally on this frontier, 
that the few citizens settled on San Juan Island, 
though like all other American pioneers, brave, and 
possessed of effective weapons for defence and attack, 
do in reality stand in need of troops for protection, not 
only against predatory bands of Indians coming from 
foreign parts, but also from such bands residing within 

8* Milton's San Juan, 327-9; //. Ex. Doc. 65, ix. 65-7, 36th Cong., 1st Sess. 



SCOTT AND DOUGLAS. 629 

our own limits;" and further that he had just come 
from BelHngham Bay, where an attack had been matle 
during the summer, and again threatened, a detach- 
ment having been recently sent from San Juan to the 
town of Whatcom. 

Thus showing' Doui^las that he entertained Ameri- 
can and not English sentiments, with his reasons 
therefor, Scott submitted a project for temporary 
settlement, which he requested his Excellency to con- 
sider, declaring that he could see no other principle 
whereupon a present adjustment could be made. 

The repl}^ of Douglas was that he could not con- 
sent to a joint military occupation without the sanc- 
tion of his government ;^^ that he was authorized to 
maintain but not to make treaties, and that he did 
not think it advisable to anticipate the action of Great 
Britain; that protection against all ordinary danger 
to residents on the island could be fully attained 
without military occupation. Moreover, the expedi- 
ency of affording protection to persons settling on 
disputed territory might be questioned; on that sub- 
ject his instructions left him in no doubt with refer- 
ence to his colony; "protection could not be afforded 
to persons who, by wandering beyond the precincts of 
the settlements and the jurisdiction of the tribunals, 
voluntarily expose themselves to the violence or 
treachery of the native tribes." 

Whether this was an order of the home govern- 
ment, the governor did not say; but it reminds one 
forcibly of the accusations brought by the early Ore- 
gon settlers against the Hudson's Bay Company, and 
the remark made by some of them, that it was fortu- 
nate for the first inmiiorrations that McLoui^'hliu and 
not Douglas was in command. 

Douglas denied that the colonial authorities had 
committed any act in violation of existing treaty stip- 
ulations, or had been guilty of discourtesy toward the 

'•'There were some ITudsou'a Bay Company meu who agreed with Scott. 
See llecolkciioiis, MS., 30. 



630 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

United States government, but said that they had 
exhibited a degree of forbearance which entitled 
them to every confidence; and again he m^ged the 
withdrawal of the troops from the island, when he 
promised that the naval force in the harbor should be 
removed, at the same time assuring Scott that there 
was no intention on his part to dislodge by force the 
troops in possession, without orders from the home 
government. 

This assurance Scott accepted. Being persuaded, 
he said, that the cordial relations existing between 
the two governments precluded the probability of 
war, he would at once order the number of troops on 
the island to be reduced to one company of infantry, 
and enclosed such an order to Douglas on the 5th of 
November. It was his first intention to leave Pickett 
in command; but fearing lest there might be a preju- 
dice against this reckless ofificer, in whose honor the 
fort on San Juan was named, another company under 
Captain Hunt was substituted, and Pickett was sent 
to Fort Bellingham; not that Hunt was less fearless, 
but that he was possessed of more prudence and cour- 
tesy, and had not given cause of offence. On the 
departure of Scott, however, Pickett was at once re- 
instated by General Harney. 

The withdrawal of the United States forces, except 
one compan}^, could not be complained of, especially 
as the governor was invited to place a company on 
the island, Douglas replying that he should take 
pleasure in reporting this action to the home govern- 
ment, which, he doubted not, would accept it as proof 
of a desire of the United States to restore the former 
status of the islands; and expressing a hope that the 
commander-in-chief w^ould direct his officers to ab- 
stain from all acts provocative of conflicts, or from 
attempts to exclude British subjects by force, or in 
any manner interfere with them;^^ and on his part he 

^"This caution arose from the arrest of "William Moore, a British subject, 
for selling liquor on the island, which was forbidden. Moore, after being 



GENERAL HARNEY. 631 

would enjoin upon the British authorities the same 
abstinence from exclusive jurisdiction. 

Scott replied that he should direct the American 
officer in command not to permit the territorial func- 
tionaries to interfere with any British subject on the 
island while it was in dispute; but should add the 
further instruction, that if a British subject disturbed 
the peace, or sold strong liquor to American soldiers 
without leave from their commander, that officer 
must represent the case to the nearest British author- 
it}^ asking for the removal of the offender; a-nd if 
ho should return to the island without permission, the 
officer must expel him without further ceremony. ^^ 

This ended the correspondence between Scott and 
Douglas. By v\^ithdrawing the main force and the 
batteries from Fort Pickett, the former had left 
Great Britain to take the initiative in any future hos- 
tilities, but without yielding any rights or making 
any binding concessions. Scott was made aware, be- 
fore leaving Washington, that the British government 
w^ould demand the removal of Harney from the Ore- 
gon department; and the president, reluctant to re- 
lieve from his command a popular officer, though one 
whose excessive zeal in the interests of the people and 
the government had almost involved the country in a 
war, had suggested reuniting the departments of Cal- 
ifornia and Oregon, whereby Harney would, without 
prejudice to his standing, be forced to take a com- 
mand in some other part of the United States terri- 
torj'. But Harney, not at first perceiving the motive 
of the commander-in-chief, placed before him strong 
arguments against throwing the two departments into 

put to work in the trenches for half a day, was tried before Ju.stice Crosbio 
and luicd, according to his deposition, 87o. //. Ex. Doc, ix., no. Go, pp. 
73-4, oGth Coiifj., Id Ses.f. The case fully illustrated the trouble that would 
arise from a divided jurisdiction. 

^'- Sen. Doc. 10, 7J, v., 3GLh Cong., 1st Sess.; II. Ex. Doc, W-lZ—Mfus. 
and Doc. jjt i. — JGlh Conj., lat Scsx.; Id., pt ii., 3'J-90, 577; //ojwe Jour., 
1445, set h Cong., 1st Sess.; Seii. Jour., lUi2G, SGih Cong., 1st Sess.; II. Ex. 
Doc 29, 8-10, 22-0, 37-03, SGth Cong., 2d Sess. 



632 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

one, and cited the condition of the country when the 
headquarters were at San Francisco. 

At length, just as he was taking his departure from 
the Columbia, Scott gave Harney liis true reason for 
making the suggestion, and left with him an order to 
repair to St Louis and assume command of the de- 
partment of the west, placing Wright in command of 
the department of Oregon, but giving him leave to 
decline or accept the order as he should elect. Har- 
ney, however, did not wish to go to St Louis just at 
that time. He had begun the erection of a residence 
about one mile east from Vancouver, then nearly com- 
pleted,^^ and did not find it convenient, had it been 
otherwise agreeable, to leave the territory. Neither 
did he believe that his action with regard to San 
Juan would embarrass the president. That, at al{ 
events, was the opinion expressed in reply to the 
commander-in-chief's suggestion, written on the spur 
of the moment. 

Two days later I find him entertaining the idea. 
In a long couimunication to the adjutant-general, in 
wdiich he recommends the continuance of the Oregon 
department, he concludes by saying that, although he 
would not make a formal application to be relieved 
from his command lest it should derange any course 
already decided upon, he would esteem it a favor if 
the president would at his earliest convenience allow 
him to return to the east and to his family, from 
which he had been for five yesirs separated. He was 
not recalled until the following summer, although 
Scott, vexed on account of some private official mis- 
understandings, used his influence against him. On 
tlie other hand, the leofislatures of Oreofon and Wash- 
nigton, on being informed of the contemplated change 
in their military department, memorialized congress 

^^This structure went by the name of Dundas Castle. It was beautifully 
situated in a plateau overlooking the Columbia, and surrounded by a giove 
of stately fir-trees. Hai-ney wiwhed to sell it for an arsenal, but the title to 
the land was unsettled. It came later into the possession of J. E. Wyche, 
and was afterward aiiain sold. 



rOPULxVR FEELIXG. G33 

against it, and praj^ed to have Harney retained in 
conunand; and Scott, whose visit had been received 
with deference, began to be severely criticised, which 
was nothing new for him.^^ 

Not until March did Admiral Baynes disembark 
on the disputed island a company of marines equal in 
number to the force of Captain Hunt, under the com- 
mand of Captain George Bazalgette, his instructions 
being the same as those given to the American cap- 
tain. The respective commanders observed the ut- 
most courtesy toward each other, as they had been 
instructed to do. In the mean time the American 
population of San Juan was doubled, farms were 
opened, and manufactures started. 

Nor did the Fourth- of- July spirit die out; but in 
November a public meeting vv^as held to express the 
sentiments of the settlers with regard to the sover- 
eignty of this bit of insular territory. At Olympia 
the democratic portion of the legislature, at a meeting 
held for the purpose, nominated Harney as their 
choice for president in 1860. It was quite clear that, 
whatever the government might do, the people in- 
tended to sustain Harney. 

The American aspect of the case descends now to a 
disgraceful quarrel between two of its officers, a posi- 
tion in which they are too often found in the history 
of the nation. Nor will it be of any import to this 
history to follow a private quarrel between Scott and 

^' According to the Orepou Statesman of January 2i, 18G0, the iutcrvcntiou 
of tlie commander-in-chief had done more harm than good. When he arrived, 
said that journal, the San Juan question was practically settled. There was 
no occasion for liini to interfere. The British iloet had retired to Esquimalt 
harhor, except tlie Satellite, which still lay in tlie harbor of San Juan. The 
Americans hail peaceable possession, and exercised civil and military juris- 
dicdon. But instead of letting matters remain as they were, lie ordered off 
PicUett, offered joint occupancy, and recommended the recall of Harney and 
the abolitinn of the Oregon department. Nor were the Oregon and Puget 
Sound papers tlie only journals to question the wisdom of the cominauder-in- 
cliief in sacrilicing Pickett and ILirney, whom the government and himself 
indorsed, by leaving a military force on the island, and by abolishing British 
civil jurisdiction, but the westtirn press in general lamented the necessity, 
real or imaginary, of the implied censure. See Aalional /ntelli'jencer, J aly 2S, 
ISGO; Evan;/' A'. W. Boundary, 33; F. /. British Colonist. 



634 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

Harney, except so far as it affects the question under 
consideration. On the 10th of April, 18G0, Harney 
sent a despatch to Pickett from Fort Vancouver, 
wherein he informs him: 1st. That Scott left no in- 
structions with him to grant a military occupation 
of San Juan Island by British troops; nor had any 
authority been delegated by the government to Scott 
to offer or accept such occupation; nor was the offer 
made by him accepted by Governor Douglas, or any 
such arrangement subsequently made, so far as he, 
Harney, was informed; 2d. The British authorities 
had simply submitted an assurance that no attempt 
would bo made by them to dislodge the American 
troops, in view of which they were permitted to land 
troops for a purpose similar to that of the commander 
of the department, to protect the British residents; 
3d. Under the organic act of congress for the estab- 
lishment of Washington territory, the legislature of 
1854 had passed an act including the island of San 
Juan in Whatcom county, which act on being sub- 
mitted to congress was not disapproved, and was there- 
fore the law of the land, and being such, Pickett would 
be expected to regard the civil jurisdiction of Washing- 
ton, any attempt to ignore which would be followed 
by deplorable results. In the event of British in- 
terests being involved, Pickett was required to notify 
Captain Bazalgette, who would propose some arrange- 
ment satisfactory to his instructions, as well as those 
of the civil officer, no action in any case to be taken 
until it had been referred to the British admiral and 
the governor of Washington. 

No sooner had the reappointment of Pickett been 
made know^n in Washington city than the British 
minister called the attention of Secretary Cass to 
the event, expressing his confidence that the United 
States government would not lose any time in provid- 
ing against the deplorable consequences likely to follow. 
Lord Lyons, as well as General Scott, endeavored to 



ARBITRATIOX. 635 

arouse the government against Harney ,*° and the 
secretarj^ of war was directed to recall him at once. 
Accordingly Harney went to Washington, Hunt was 
ordered hack to San Juan/^ and Colonel Wright was 
placed in command of the department of Oregon. 

The reprimand which General Harney received 
from the secretary of war was a mild one. The sec- 
letary disapproved of violating the order of General 
Scott; hut while expressing his disapprobation, he en- 
tertained no doubt of the proper intentions of General 
Harney, "and from his known high character and 
distinguished services, he was not disposed to be severe 
in his condemnation." 

There remains little that need be told of the history 
of San Juan. Unable to settle the boundary, the 
British government authorized Lord Lyons, on the 
10th of December, 1860, to propose arbitration by 
one of three European powers; namely, Belgium, 
Denmark, or the Swiss republic; but for the time 
this i)roposal led to no result. Then came the civil 
war in the United States, when the cabinet had 
enoui>;h to do to manas^e its domestic affairs, and the 
San Juan question was suffered to be forgotten. 

It was not until 18G8 that Adams, minister to Eng- 
land, was notified by Secretarj^ Seward that among 
other important questions to be negotiated the San 
Juan boundary should be included. In 1869 Adams' 
successor, Beverdy Johnson, was instructed to give 
his attention to the adjustment of this question, acce[)t- 
ing the proposal made ten years before that it should 
be settled by arbitration; and on the 17th of October 
a protocol was signed by Stanley and Johnson, agree- 
ing that the question should be referred to some 

^'' Scott wrote: 'If this docs uot lead to a collision of arms, it will atfain 
be duo to the fo>'bc:irance of the British authorities.' Milton^s Saii Juan, ;J."J4. 

*' Pickett wad a southeruer, and when tho civil war broke out joined the 
confederacy antl was made a general. lie commanded a division niulcr Long- 
street at Gettysburg. He, like most of the southern ollicers who i-usi^ued 
from the United States army, died in a few years after the close of the war. 



636 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

friendly sovereign or state, and that within three 
months after the ratification of any treaty giving 
effect to the agreement the referee should be selected, 
the naturalization treaty being mentioned as the one 
that must be first disposed of. On the 10th of No- 
vember, the claims questions having been referred to 
four commissioners, two chosen by each government, 
it was also agreed that the boundary question should 
be determined by the president of the federal council 
of the Swiss republic on the conclusion of the treaty 
above named. 

When the first proposition was made in 1868 to 
accept arbitration as a means of disposing of the 
question, the officials of Washington territory sent a 
remonstrance to congress, entreating the senate to con- 
sent to no protocol nor convention admitting a doubt 
of the right of the United States to the hne of the 
Canal de Haro, or a possible surrender of the Haro 
archipelago.*^ 

Mr Seward, however, not being satisfied with the 
claims convention, wrote Johnson to allow the natural- 

*- The remonstrance was signed by Marshall F. Moore governor, Hazard 
Stevens collector, S. D. Howe assessor internal revenue, Joseph Ciislinian 
receiver of the same, E. Marsli register of the land-ofBce, J. E. Wyche U. S. 
district judge, Leander Holmes U. S. attorney, S. Garfield surveyor-general, 
Philip D. Aloore collector of internal revenue, E. L. Smith territorial secre- 
taiy, T. M. Reed chief clerk in land-ofBce, Charles A. White surveyor, C. 
H. Hale ex-superintendent Indian affairs, W. W. Miller the same, E. Giele- 
ling lato acting surveyor-general, Benjamin Horned territorial treasurer, C. 
S. King Indian agent, Levi Shelton territorial librarian, William Huntington 
U. S. marshal, B. F. Dennison U>S. district judge, 0. B. McFadden ex-tj. S. 
chief justice, Frank Clark, H. G. Steiner, Elwood Evans. U. S. Sen. 3Ii^c. 
D'jc, '27, 40th Confj., Sd Sess. In reply to a letter from the president of tlie 
Northern Pacific railroad, George Gibl« wrote a letter, afterward published 
in pamphlet form, on the jn'otocol of 1SG9, in which he reviewed the agree- 
ment in no friendly spirit. He declared the president of the Swiss confedera- 
tion a myth, which, regarded in the light of a sovereign, he really was; said 
that Englan.l meant that San Juan Island and Point Roberts were to be given 
up for the naturalization treaty; hoped that to avoid a war the U. S. would 
adopt the middle or President's passage, as the Active-Plumper channel was 
now called; aud declared that if England was to lose her possessions on the 
Pacific, as she must eventually, she wished to make the U. S. pay the highest 
price for the acquisition, a price that would be enhanced by the possession of 
San Juan and Point Roberts, for whicli she was striving. He concluded by 
siying that it would never do to leave Puget Sound entirely under Britisli 
guns, as tlie command of the Sound involved that of the Columbia River. 
GM-t' San Jaaii Tricifjj. Point Roberts is a neck of laud extending bclo';7 
the 49th parallel, directly south of the mouth of Fraser River. 



TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 637 

ization and San Juan questions to remain in protocol 
unless Great Britain agreed to amend the former, and 
the reference to arbitration was rescinded by this 
action. An amended convention was then accepted 
by Great Britain and forwarded to the United States, 
but rejected by the senate, which rejection rendered 
nugatory a second agreement to submit the boundary 
question to the arbitration of the president of the 
Swiss confederation. 

Thus this question was suffered to drift along until, 
in 1871, England sent five commissioners to Wash- 
ington city to negotiate a treaty, which was concluded 
Ma}^ 8th of that year, and is known as the treaty of 
Washington, the thirty-fourth article of which is in 
the following language: "Whereas, it was stipulated 
by article 1 of the treaty concluded at Washington 
on the 15th of June, 184G, between the United States 
and her Britannic Majesty, that the line of boundary'' 
between the territories of the United States and those 
of her Britannic Majest}^, from the point on the 49th 
parallel of north latitude up to which it had been 
already ascertained, should be continued westward 
along the said parallel of north latitude 'to the mid- 
dle of the channel which separates the continent from 
Vancouver's Island, and thence southerl}" through the 
middle of said channel and of Fuca Straits to the 
Pacific Ocean;' and whereas, the commissioners ap- 
pointed by the two high contracting parties to deter- 
mine the portion of the boundary which runs southerly 
tlirough the middle of the channel aforesaid were 
unable to agree upon the same; and whereas, the gov- 
ernment of her Britannic Majesty claims that such 
boundary line should, under the terms of the treaty 
above recited, be run through Rosario Straits, and 
the government of the United States claims that it 
should be run through the Canal de Haro — it is agreed 
that the respective claims of the government of the 
United States and the government of her Britannic 
Majesty shall be submitted to the arbitration and 



638 THE SAN JUAN ISLAND DIFFICULTY. 

award of his Majesty the emperor of Germany, who, 
having regard to the above-mentioned article of the 
said treaty, shall decide thereupon, finally and with- 
out appeal, which of those claims is in the most accord- 
ance with the true interpretation of the treaty of June 
15, 1846."« 

Emperor William of Germany accepted the office 
of arbitrator, both governments presenting a carefully 
prepared case, with documents and maps, George 
Bancroft, the American minister to Germany, and 
Mr Petre, the British charge d'aiFairs, having the re- 
sponsibility of laying before him all the arguments on 
either side. Present in Berlin, and laboring for the 
acceptance of his views, was Captain, now Admiral 
Prevost, the British commissioner of 1859. The 
award was not made until October 21, 1872, when it 
was given to the United States. There are some on 
both sides of the line who hold to the opinion that 
the decision was wrong; others believe it right; still 
others say that it is a matter of small moment to 
which of the great powers this little patch of earth 
belongs. Great as was the disappointment of the 
people of British Columbia, the award was most 
courteously accepted, and within a few weeks orders 
were given by the imperial government for its troops 
to evacuate San Juan. The greatest good feeling had 
all along existed between the officers and soldiery, 
and three hearty cheers were given by the Americans 
on the departure of the royal marines; none the less 
hearty, because on this occasion the Yankees could 
well afford to cheer.^* 

*^ Treaty of Washington Papers, v. 256; Ciishing^s Treaty of Washington ^ 
app., 257-74; Ex. Doc. 1, pt 1, Ji.2d Gong., 3d Sess.; Foreign Relations, i., 
xxv.-vi., Jf3d Cong., l.<t Sess. 

*^Pi(get Sound Despatch, Dec. 5, 1S72; Butler's Wild North Lawl, SIL 
The cost to England of occupying San Juan was between twelve and thirteen 
thousand dollai's a year, besides the pay of officers and men. Hansard's Pari. 
Deb., cxcix. 123S. The cost to the United States was that of keeping up a 
post where it was needed to watch the northern Indians. See memorial of the 
Washington legislature in Wash. Stat., 1S67-S, 183-5, asking relief for Isaac 
E. Higgins, a 'persecuted' settler, and that Captain Grey be punished for 
abuses of power. Also correspondence of Acting Gov, McGill with tho sec. of 



EKD OF THE COXTROVERSY. 639 

state, in Eravs' N. M'. Boundary, 39, and the decision of Judge Fitzhugh on 
p. 40, also the opinion of Judge B. F. Dennison in the Port Toiaisend Mc'iHWje, 
Oct. 1 and S, ISOS. The award, which removed all the disabilities complained 
of, left the United States for the first time in the history of the nation without 
a boundary dispute with Great Britain, and consequently in a condition to 
outgrow, on both sides, many prejudices and imaginary causes of difference. 
Soine years before the emperor's decision was rendered the Hudson's Bay and 
Pugct Sound Agricultural cjuipanies brought forward claims against the U. 
S. for loss of territory. They wei-e finally disallowed, on the ground that it 
had been decided by the emperor of Germany that the islands rightfully be- 
longed to the U. S., although the commissioners appointed under the treaty 
of ISO:] had awarded $450,000 to the H. B. Co. and .S-200,000 to the Pugct 
Sound Co. Claims were also bi'ought forward by British residents of San 
Juan, and Hazard Stevens was appointed commissioner for the purpose of 
inquiring into and settling them. After visiting the island and making an 
investigation, he reported to the president that no claims existed which tlic 
government was bound to recognize. Slevnis, ,San Juan Cla'an.t, MS. Mr 
Stevens rem.arks that the manner in which the demands of the two companies 
were presented by the British minister at Washington, and investigated by 
order of congress, forms a curious episode in this protracted dispute. In 1SS4 
Mr .'■Stevens was practising law in Boston. The evidence for the companies 
and for the U. S., with the memorials and arguments of claimants, the argu- 
n)i:nts of counsel for the U. S., the opinions and award of the commissioners, 
and the opinions of the press, were published in five volumes and parts, under 
the general title of Claims of the Iltid-iOii's Bay and Piujct Sound Ar/ricidtural 
Comjjfnues, Jlontreal, ISGS, Washington, 1SG7, 1SG8. 

In thus presenting an account of the San Juan difficulty, I have stated the 
facts as I have found them, making little comment thereon. Hundreds of 
opinions and versions have bnen published in newspapers, books, and maga- 
zines, as, for example, that of William John Macdonald, though by no means 
a reliable writer, but an employ^ of the Hudson's Bay Company, who, witii a 
party of French Canadians, was stationed at San Juan two or three years be- 
fore the dispute occurred, antl afterward became a citizen of Victoria. He 
states that the Americans never considei'cd the island as any portion of their 
territory until about the year 18.'>3. Captain Alden, of the surveying steamer 
Active, found deeper water in the Canal de Harothan in the Rosario channel, 
and claimed the former as, under the terms of the treaty, ' the channel which 
Separates Vancouver's Island from the mainland.' After negotiations and sur- 
veys extending over tv.o years, Capt. Brevost being sent from England in the 
Haldllte, to protect British interests, and, if possible, to an-ange matters, the 
commissioners appointed by both nations failed to agree. In ISoO Gsn. Har- 
ney came from Oregon in the sloop of war Decatur, with about 150 men. 
Anchoring in Grifiin Bay, he threw up rough earthworks on the high land 
above tiie harbor and planted some cannon. Sir James Douglas went over in 
a sliip of war to remonstrate, and rcciucsted Harney to remove his troops, 
which the latter declined to do. The people of Victoria were sorely annoyed 
at the aggressiveness of the Americans, and as there were at this time, in the 
harbor of Victoria, nine vessels of war, recently arrived from Ciiina, all were 
in favor of resorting to arms. At the instance of Admiral Baynes, however, 
a council was held and milder measures prevailed. Harney, who, it was be- 
lieved, acted under the advice of Commissioner Campbell, was severely cen- 
sured for his conduct. Brit. Col. Sketches, MS., 24-6. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

1871-1874. 

The Tide of Westward-bound Migration — Reasons for and against 
THE Railway Project — The Bill Carried in the Commons — Reso- 
lution Passed by the Canadian Parliament — Policy of the British 
AND Canadian Governments — Preliminary Surveys— The Hugh 
Allan Contract — A Modest Demand — The Contract Annulled — 
Change of Administration— James D. Edgar's Negotiations— Their 
Failure and its Cause — Mackenzie's Railway Scheme — Objections 
to his Project. 

The project for interoceanic communication between 
the British possessions on the Atlantic and Pacific 
was one mooted long before the confederation gave it 
definite form. It was the dream of Mackenzie and 
his fellow-explorers, who set forth for the great north- 
wx'st in their bark canoes, and whose journe^^s ante- 
date by nearly half a century the existence of rail- 
ways in this quarter. Not until 1837 — the year of 
the Canadian rebellion — were the first sixteen miles 
of railroad constructed in Canada, the line being in 
operation only some ten years later than the first one 
completed in the United States, and about seven 
years later than the first one completed in England. 
At that date the greater portion of British North 
America was as yet a wilderness, a few trails through 
the forest between lakes Huron and Ontario being 
then the grand trunk roads of Canada. 

Until the gold discovery in California, the idea was 
perhaps never conceived that England's domain in 
the north-west would form one with her Canadian 

(C40) 



EAS'^ AND WEST. 641 

possessions; but after that event another condition 
of affairs prevailed. The stream of immigration tliat 
flowed steadily westward through the British posses- 
sions, finding itself barred by Lake Huron anel the 
mountainous region to the north, passed onward into 
Michigan and the western states, there being absorbed 
in the tide of American travel. It now became evi- 
dent that the surplus population of Canada West was 
destined to overflow into the United States; while, on 
the other hand, Vancouver Island and the mainland 
were in danger of fallino;' into the hands of foreiirners. 
Then it was that Great Britian first realized the im- 
portance of her possessions on the Pacific. 

If England now proposed to maintain her influence 
on the western continent, she must not delay much 
longer, as it seemed, the task of establishing overland 
communication between Canada and the Pacific,^ this 
being the only means b}^ which her power could be 
consolidated, and the principal reason for establish- 
ing colonies on the western shores of the Hudson's 
Bay Company's territory. Such, at least, were the 
views derived from an intimate knowledge of the 
great northern interior, as well as of the Pacific coast, 
and entertained by the advanced intelligence and 
statesmanship of the mother country. By Canada, 
however, these views were not shared, until the facts 
disclosed during the confederation movement brought 
home to her the need of a western outlet; until it was 
shown that several hundred thousands of her citizens 
had within a few years been absorbed by the union. 
"Canada," write her Majesty's emigration commis- 
sioners in their report for 1871, "cannot at present 
absorb more than 30,000 or 40,000 emigrants a year, 
and the excess beyond that number can obtain employ- 
ment only in the labor market of the United States."^ 

'In Fitzgerald's V. /., 126-8, it is recommended that a chain of posts be 
established by the Hudson's Bay Co. a tliousaud miles in length, along the 
banks of the Saskatchewan River, and thence westward, and tijat a liighway 
be opened for trathc between the two oceans. 

' Wilson, Canada and the Can. Pac. Piailtvay, 12, states that between 
Uisr. Bbix. Col. il 



642 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

It was not until the discovery of the Fraser River 
gold-fields in 1858 that the project for a railroad be- 
tween the Atlantic and Pacific, and the idea of a 
united British American empire, first took definite 
shape. The Grand Trunk railwaj^, completed about 
that date to Sarnia, was extended in imagination to 
New Westminster. Sarnia was to compete with Buf- 
falo, Montreal with New York,^ and Boston looked 
on and said : "While congress is postponing the con- 
sideration of the Pacific railway bill from May to De- 
cember, and from December till May, Great Britain 
has her railway to the Pacific already commenced. 
...Let any one who doubts the joint ability of 
the Canadian and English governments to accomplish 
so great an enterprise take down the map and look at 
the line of the Grand Trunk, already connecting the 
Atlantic with the lakes, and then look at the compar- 
atively short distance from Lake Superior to Van- 
couver Island."^ 

For so important a stake as the control of inter- 
oceanic commerce, it was of course supposed that 
Great Britain would play boldly; nor did her govern- 
ment remain an idle spectator of the events that were 
transpiring in the north-west. "I hope," said her 
Majesty, in her speech from the throne in 1858, "that 
this new colony in the Pacific may be but one step in 
the career of steady progress by wdiich my dominions 
in North America may be ultimately peopled in an 
unbroken chain from the Atlantic to the Pacific by a 
loyal and industrious population."^ ♦ 

Will the line of the Pacific railroad traverse British 
Columbia? was now among the absorbing questions of 

1S60 and 1870 Canada did not absorb any population, basing his statement 
on the figures given in the Canadian Ycar-Dook for 1S73, where the increase 
of population in the province of Quebec between 1801 and 1871 is given at 7.2 
per cent, and in Ontario at 1G.09 per cent, against 28.0(3 and 57.6 per cent re- 
spectively for the previous decade. In the former province the increase for 
1801-71 was below the natural rate. 
''^ Le Journal deV Empire, Paris, 1858. 

* Boston Ev. Transcript, June 5, 1858. 

* Browii's Essay, Brit. Col. , Ci-i. 



SLOW rr.OGRESS. C43 

the day, and one of grave import to tlie newly created 
colonies and to the commercial world. But, save that 
an engineers' camp was established at Now Westmin- 
ster in charge of Colonel Moody, to whom important 
interests were afterward confided, little was accom- 
plished; for at this date the project seemed almost 
impracticable. No suitable pass had as yet been dis- 
covered;^ no column of emigrants, bringing wagons 
and herds from the Canadian settlements, had pene- 
trated the forest and snow-clad mountains, which, a 
few degrees to the south, presented to the early set- 
tlers of Oregon no insuperable difficulty. Moreover, 
the country was far too remote from Canada for the 
dominion government to construct a road in advance 
of emigration. Says Palliser, in his report to the sec- 
retary of state for the colonies, in 1859, after the fail- 
ure of his effort to find a practicable route to the 
Fraser: "The manner in which natural obstacles have 
isolated the country from all other British possessions 
in the east is a matter of considerable weight; indeed, 
it is the obstacle of the country, and one, 1 fear, almost 
be3'ond the remedies of art."'^ Then, for a time, the 
project was forgotten. 

In 18G8-9, however, British Columbia was yield- 

^ The Kootenai pass, discovered by Capt. Blakiston, some forty miles north 
of the boundary, was 5,9G0 feet above the sea-level, and for seven and a half 
miles after entering it, the rise would be one in 180. Thence a cutting of 
some three and a half miles would lead to a tunnel 5 miles in length, at a 
gradient of one in 130. The line would then skiit tlie base of the mountains 
until it readied a second ridge, with an elevation of 5,100 feet, a few miles 
from which thei'C Avas a gradient of about one in 95. For extracts from the 
ca2:)tain's report, see ^lacdonakVs B. C. and V. /., 237-43. 

' Id.,2-Vl. The Papers Rdat'ive to the Exploration by (he Expedition under 
Captain Palliser of that portion of British North America which lies between 
the Xorlhern Brnnrh of the Biver Sashttrhctcan and the Frontier of the United 
States, and between the Bed River and the Rochj Mountains, and thence to the 
Pacific Ocean (London, 1S5S), form merely a preliminary report, consisting 
mainly of copies of letters to the secretary of state, though containing several 
geological reports and maps of the country near Winnipeg, compiled and ar- 
ranged by Dr Hector in systematic f(jrni. In the Farther Papers (London, 
ISliO), the title being otherwise the s' me, are recorded the results of his expe- 
dition. In addition to copies of otficial despatches are reports on special sub- 
jects, relating to physical features, natural productions, climate, the aborigines, 
Indian missions and settlements, tlic fur trade, means of transport, mail and 
telegraph routes, and otlicr matters. Following the title-page is a map, show- 
ing the routes taken by Palliser and Hector. 



644 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

iDg a large amount of gold; and it was at the former 
date, and partly due to the efforts of Viscount Mil- 
ton in the two houses of parliament, after his explo- 
ration of the Yellowhead, Thompson, and Fraser 
route, that the subject of transcontinental communi- 
cation was revived. At this juncture Alfred Wad- 
dington presented in the commons a petition in favor 
of a Canadian Pacific railway, urging in an elaborate 
argument ^ that British Columbia was the key to the 
commerce of the Pacific, the possession of which was 
coveted by the United States ;'' but as 3'et little inter- 
est was awakened in the mother country. 

In the Canada Official Gazette of September 28, 
1869, appeared the first notice of the existence of 
such an incorporation as the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
way Company, setting forth that application would 
be made at the next session of the Canadian parlia- 
ment for a charter to build a railway from Canada to 
the British Columbia boundar}^ In the Montreal 
Gazette was published the prospectus of the promoters, 
containing twenty-nine paragraphs, and without sig- 
nature.^*' If we can believe Waddington, this plan 
originated with Mr Burpee, a Canadian engineer of 
his acquaintance, and was compiled from his own notes, 
without further object than to bring the matter 
before the attention of the public. Burpee's scheme 
proposed to raise a capital of £20,000,000, to be ex- 
pended mainly on the building of a road from Minne- 
sota, over the plains of the Saskatchewan, to the 
eastern end of the Yellowhead pass. Through Wad- 
dington's influence at Ottawa, whither he repaired, 
in 1870, by the advice of his parliamentary friends in 
London, great prominence was given to the proposi- 
tion for a railway in connection with the negotiation 

^The text of which is given in the Brit. Colonist, Aug. 15, 1S68. 

^ His views were not shared by Charles Wentworth Dilke, who remarks, 
' In all history, there is nothing stranger than the narrowness of mind that has 
led us to see in Canada a piece of England, and in America a hostile country.' 
Greater Britain, i. 67. 

"Copied in the Colonist of Nov. 28, 1869. 



IX TARLIAMEXT. G15 

of the terms of union between British Columbia and 
Canada; and the Canadian Pacific railway henceforth 
had a history apart, and one involving the action of 
the two governments. 

When the subject of the confederation was dis- 
cussed in the dominion parliament, the terms relating 
to the construction of the railway seemed to most 
disinterested persons almost impossible of fulfilment, 
and many of the strongest friends of the government 
were opposed to them. In the commons, where the 
Macdonald ministry, then in power, had usually a 
majority of three to one, the measure was passed 
with difficulty, one motion against it being lost only 
by ten votes.^^ It is almost certain that the govern- 
ment would have been defeated had not the premier ^'^ 
promised to introduce a resolution modifying the ob- 
jectionable features, though one altogether inconsist- 
ent with the intent of the address adopted by the 
house ten days before. It was couched in the follow- 
ing phrase: "That the railway referred to in the ad- 
dress to her Majesty concerning the union of British 
Columbia with Canada, adopted by this house on Sat- 
urday, the 1st April instant, should be constructed 
and worked by private enterprise, and not by the 
dominion government; and that the public aid to 
be given to secure that undertaking should consist 
of such liberal grants of land, and such subsidy in 
money, or other aid, not increasing the present rate of 
taxation, as the parliament of Canada shall hereafter 
determine." ^^ 

If the construction of the railway was to await 
private enterprise, it seems onl}'' just that it should 
have been so stated, not only in the address, but in 
the resolutions that were afterward made binding on 
the province and the dominion as terms of union. 

•* The numbers were 75 to 85. Eighteen of the regular ministerial sup- 
porters voted against it, and many declined to vote. Machemie'a Can. Pac. 
Jl. U., MS., 3; Jour. Commons, 1871, IGl. 

'•'Sir George Cartier, then actiug premier. 

"/(/., 3-4; Jour. Commons, 1871, 264. 



646 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

Considering the great difficulties of the task, the cer- 
tainty of its enormous expense, the fact that by many 
skilful engineers it was considered almost impossi- 
ble at any cost, that most of the route lay through a 
wilderness, that the San Francisco of British Colum- 
bia was then but a village, while the entire white 
population of the colony was less than that of a third- 
rate town, and that transcontinental traffic was already 
in the hands of the Central and Union Pacific, it was 
extremely improbable that private individuals, pos- 
sessing sufficient enterprise and capital, would come 
forward at this juncture. It is certain, moreover, 
that when British Columbia merged her individuality 
in the dominion, her people believed that the terms 
were made in good faith, and that the road would be 
begun and completed within the specified time. When, 
therefore, as will be mentioned later, the province in- 
sisted on the contract, she repudiated the resolution 
which the dominion legislature had passed in order to 
protect Canada from unreasonable demands, and if 
necessary, to avoid the literal fulfilment of its obliga- 
tions.^^ 

Other events besides the confederation brought the 
matter prominently before the minds of the people. 
It was generally understood, when the railway agree- 
ment was concluded at Ottawa, that Mr Campbell 
went to England for the purpose of ascertaining what 
assistance would be given to the enterprise by the . 
home government.^^ On the American side of the 
line the Northern Pacific railway project took shape 
simultaneously with the Canadian Pacific, the people 
of Minnesota and the western states being fully 
awakened, in 1870, to the advantage of an enterprise 
that promised to free them, whether at the hands of 

'* For a year or two later it appears to have been an open question whether 
the line could be constructed. In his report, dated Ottawa, Jan. 2G, 1874, 
however, the chief engineer says: 'Tlie practicability of establishing railway 
communication across the continent, wholly within the limits of the domin- 
ion, is no longer a matter of doubt.' Papers rel. Mission De Cosmos, 23. 

'^ Otiaica T'.nes, quoted in Colonist, Aug. 10, 1870. 



ENGLISH POLICY. 647 

St Louis or Dulutli, from the monopoly held by 
Cliicago.^'^ 

The English government, to which appeal was 
finally taken, decided, as will presently appear, in 
favor of the province, and it was probably due to the 
skill of her statesmen that, during the controversy 
which ensued, British Columbia did not sever her 
connection with the dominion. The policy of the 
secretar}'- for the colonies was somewhat in contrast 
with that of Canadian statesmen, though doubtless 
there were selfish motives which caused England to 
favor the construction of the road. 

The British empire, of which the Canadian Pacific 
railway would be one of the main lines of intercom- 
munication, contained at this time 8,500,000 square 
miles, and 239,000,000 people in Europe, Asia, Amer- 
ica, and Australia. Though British America con- 
tained but 5,000,000 inhabitants, Great Britain on 
the one side had 32,000,000, while India and Austra- 
lasia on the other had nearly 200,000,000. It was one 
of the problems which the future alone could solve, 
whether this great commercial empire could be main- 
tained in its integrity, and especially whether the 
bcnindary line of the 49tli parallel, and of the lakes, 
could be held against the United States with their 
39,000,000, and their bond of union already estab- 
lished by a railway. Moreover, the population of 
British Columbia, with an area of '233,000 square 
miles, was comparatively far more insignificant in 
relation to Canada than was Canada herself to the 
mother country. When, some few years later, Mr 
Boscoe was taken to task in the dominion parliament 
for demanding on behalf of the province, after it had 
refused a fair money equivalent,^' the fulfilment of the 
original contract, he denounced in no measured phrase 
the sordid policy wliich would lose to Canada her 

^'^ MinncapoH.'i Tribune, Jan. 14, 1S70. 
'"The sum of §700,000, as will be mentioned later. 



648 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

frontage on the Pacific, the only thing that could 
ever make of the dominion a nation.^^ 

When British Columbia was admitted into the con- 
federation she did not ask a dole of mone}^, nor was 
phe in need of it. In the Fraser-Thompson district 
there were estimated as fit for agriculture 60,000 
square miles, in the upper Columbia district 50,000, 
and on Vancouver Island 16,000 square miles, their 
value depending, of course, on means of communica- 
tion, being not less than $2.50 to $5 per acre. Lands 
along the Grand Rapids and Indiana railway aver- 
aged, in 1872, seven dollars an acre; in Ohio, where 
wheat was worth ninety cents a bushel, $40 an acre; 
unimproved lands in Indiana, where wheat v.^as worth 
forty cents, $7.50 per acre;^^ the difference in the cost 
of forwarding being the main difference in their value. 

The interest of the Canadians in the proposed 
transcontinental railroad was mainly directed to the 
construction of the eastern end, known as the inter- 
colonial road, whereby the ocean voyage was reduced 
to a hundred hours, while avoiding the dangers of the 
thousand miles of fog and storm-girt coast between 
Newfoundland and New York. By those holding 
liberal and patriotic views of the destinies of the em- 
pire, however, there was manifested a lively interest 
in the success of the scheme; and it was argued that 
there must have been serious apprehension of a diver- 
sion of the trade of the east from the hands of the 
English through the opening of the Union and Cen- 
tral Pacific railways, or there would not have been so 
much haste to insure the completion of the Canadian 
road.^'' 

England meanwhile supported, though in a some- 
what equivocal manner, an enterprise which promised 
to complete the chain of her American possessions. 
In the British house of commons, on the 24th of 

^^ For copy of Roscoe's speech, see Brit. Coloiiist, May 28, 1S76. 
^^ Cauda Year-Book, 1873. 

'"Montreal correspondence of t\ie Neiv York World, on the intercolonial 
and Canadian Pacific x-oads, quoted in Brit. Colonist, Aug. 19, 1873. 



PRELIMINARY SURVEYS. 649 

June, 1873, Mr Hiii^GScn explained, on the second 
reading of the Canadian loan guarantee bill, that the 
sum of £2,500,000, which it was then proposed to 
raise, was to be appropriated for the construction of 
the Canadian Pacific. Sir Charles Dilke denounced 
this guarantee as in the nature of a bribe to Canada, 
for the concessions she had made in regard to the fish- 
eries, in order that the provisions of the treaty of 
Washinfjton raif^ht be executed; and declared that 
the railroad was nothing more than a gigantic parlia- 
mentary job. To this Gladstone replied that the 
guarantee had no connection with the treaty of Wash- 
ington, the action on this bill having been purposely 
delayed until after that treaty was disposed of, and 
its object being, not to give Canada a certain amount 
of hush-money, but to recognize her just demands 
against England on account of the Fenian raids on 
her territory. Canada had suffered on England's ac- 
count, and desired thus to cancel the debt.^^ 

The time for commencing the construction of the 
railway expired on the 1st of July, 1873; but at that 
date none of the surveys were approaching comple- 
tion on any portion of the line, and in British Colum- 
bia only such exploratory surveys had been made as 
were required to determine the direction in which in- 
strumental surveys should be carried on. Between 
1871 and 1878 the dominion government expended 
some $3,250,000 for explorations and surveys before 
the chief engineer finally decided that the route 
tlirouGfh British Columbia should be alonoj the val- 



" London telegram, in Colonist, July G, 1873. When tliis matter was ar- 
ranged, more than a year before, the Tiriies liad commented upon the matter 
in connection witli the decision on the San Juan question, and the Canadian 
Pacilic railway scheme. 'This,' said the Timc.'i, 'is the Canadian dream, to 
wliich it will 1)0 remembered we are so far committed that, as an induce- 
ment to the Canailian ministers to press the acceptance of the treaty of 
Washington upon the Canadian parliament, we undertook to guarantee a loan 
of two millions and a hulf, to be expended on the railway which is to make 
t'.ic dream come true. We heartily wish we were free from all complicity in 
what wc cannot but regard as a very wild undertaking; and we especially re- 
gret the way in which wc were brought into conucctiou with it.' 



650 THE CAXADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

leys of the Thompson and Fraser rivers/'^ and its 
terminus on Burrard Inlet.^^ 

It was now the prevailing sentiment among the peo- 
j3le of British Columbia that if Canada was unwilling 
or unable to bind together by means of a transconti- 
nental railroad her vast possessions west of the great 
lakes, she had better at once abandon all idea of em- 
pire, since no weaker bond would suffice to hold it to- 

"^'^ Fleminrj''s Rept Can. Pac. Railway, 1879, 17. It would seem that Mr 
Fleming was somewhat tardy in arriving at this conclusion. In his report 
for iS7-i, p. 11, he states that in order to acquire a correct knowledge of the 
physical characteristics of the entire territory in line of route, and to obtain 
such information concerning its engiHeering features as only a personal exam- 
ination could furnish, he started, early in July 1872, in charge of au explor- 
ing expedition, across tlie continent. On Sept. 15th he reached Yellowhead 
Pass, and thence following the Fraser from its Yellowhead source to Tete 
Jaune Cache, crossed to the Canoe River, and the Albreda; and from that 
jDoint followed the north Thompson to Kamloop. Touching, on his way, at 
Lytton, Yale, and New Westminster, and examining Burrard and Bute inlets, 
Barclay Sound, Seymour Narrows, Dent, and Arran Rapids, and other inter- 
mediate points, he arrived at Victoria on the 11th of October, 'thus complet- 
ing a reconnoissance which altogether extended over 5,300 miles.' Pajyers 
rel. Mission De Cosmos, 23. The journey and reconnoissance, thus accom- 
plished in about 90 days, over a most difficult country, were at least swifter 
tiian the conclusions at which he arrived; but why some five or six years 
were needed to arrive at these conclusions, the chief engineer does not state. 
He was certainly not stinted for means wherewith to employ a corps of com- 
petent assistants. 
■ ■■'^The chief engineer states that, being required to give his views as to a 
terminus on the Pacific, he submitted that it would be desirable first to ob- 
tain complete information concerning a northern route, by way of Peace or 
Pine River. The government, however, desired that construction should 
commence immediately in British Columbia, and as no further postponement 
could be allowed, he recommended the above line of route. In the same re- 
port he admits that the choice of Burrard Inlet as a terminus had not given 
satisfaction to the people of British Columbia. In a report of the privy 
council of Canada, dated June 6, 1873, it was ordei'ed, as we shall see later, 
that Esquimau should be the terminus, though the alignment on the main- 
land had not then been determined. Papers rel. Mission De Cosmos, 7. In 
the same report it was recommended that a line of railway be located be- 
tween Esquimalt and Seymour Narrows, V. I. Sess. Papers, D. C, 1881. In 
187-3 an exploration was made of the Peace River pass and valley, in charge 
of Mr Selwyn, with Professor Macoun as botanist, and A. Wel:isfcer as geo- 
logical assistant, in connection with the choice of a route for the Canadian 
Pacific. The party left Quesnel, on the Fraser River, on the 5th of June, re- 
turning on the 20th of October, after a journey of 1,700 miles, extending 
over three and a half degrees of latitude, and 7 of longitude. The results 
will be found in the progress report for 1875-6. During the same summer, 
George M. Dawson examined the district between the Homathco River and 
Fort George, on the west side of the Fraser. In 1876 INIr. Dawson was again 
in charge of surveys in British Columbia, the results of his investigations oc- 
cupying about 140 pages of the progress report for 1876-7. The region exam- 
ined lay chiefly in the basins of the Blackwater and Nechaco rival's, and 
included large tracts of densely wooded plateau. 



SURVEYS AND LANDS. C51 

gethcr. They had no desire to insist too strictly, as 
they declared, on the limit as to time; nor did they 
expect the dominion to impoverish itself in order to 
build the road; but as the construction of the inter- 
colonial road from Halifax to Quebec was one of the 
terms under which the Atlantic provinces joined the 
confederation, so the building of an interoceanic rail- 
way was a condition, and the main condition, under 
which the Pacific province became one with the do- 
minion."^* 

Although, apart from surveys, little had as j^et been 
done toward the fulfilment of the contract, on the 
2Gth of April, 1872, a bill was introduced in parliament 
by Sir G. E. Cartier, in which it was proposed to grant 
a subsidy of $30,000,000, together with 50,000,000 
acres of land, for the construction of a railway from 
Lake Nipissing to the Pacific coast. The government 
was authorized to make contracts with a single corn- 
pan}^ for the construction of the entire line, provided 
that such company possessed a capital of $10,000,000, 
of which ten per cent must be deposited with the re- 
ceiver-general. As it might not be possible to come 
to terms with a single company, an agreement coiild 
be made with amalgamated companies, and, failing 
either arrangement, a charter might be granted to 
other capitalists by order in council, under the general 
lailroad act. It was desirable, howexer, that the 
road should be constructed and worked by a single 
corporation. The land grant was to be made in alter- 
nate blocks, twenty miles in depth, the remaining 

^'On the other hand, the orcran of the opposition party in the domiuion 
parliament spolie in 1S72 of the Canadian raciiic railway project as. 'an insane 
contract with a handful of people in Uriti.sli Columbia.' Brit. Cohiiisf, Apr. 
]'2, 1$7'2. Cartwright, the minister of iinance under Mackenzie's administra- 
tion, on the overthrow of Macdon-.ld's administration, declared in his speech 
at Danville that 'confederation v/as the mere childish vanity of having to say 
that thej' had extended the dominion from ocean to ocean.' Speaking of the 
I'acilio railway project, he said: 'If ever a body of men were rcs[)onsible for 
inflicting a great evil on the country, it was the government which forced on 
us, in IbTl, the task of constructing the Pacitic railwaj', and wliich thereby 
provided the way for their own downfall, and also caused great mischief and 
loss to the people of the whole dominion.' Ulaiidard, Oct. 2d, 1S7C. 



652 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

blocks being reserved b}^ government.^^ As to the 
money grant, it was anticipated that most of it would 
be reimbursed by sales of land. The imperial guar- 
antee on a loan of £2,500,000, of which notification 
had already been received, would reduce somewhat 
the rate of interest on the sums to be borrowed ; and 
it was believed that, without increasing her taxation, 
Canada could pay that interest, and establish a sink- 
ing fund which would cancel the entire debt within 
thirty or forty years. 

Alexander Mackenzie replied to Sir G. E. Cartier's 
speech, characterizing the bill as one which gave to 
the government power to do whatever it pleased as to 
the construction of the railway. It was notorious, he 
said, that there were already two rings, between which 
there was the utmost hostility, each striving to obtain 
the charter, and each largely composed of members of 
the dominion parliament. The bill was then read a 
first time without further discussion, and after being 
passed to a second and third reading, was approved 
by the cabinet. News of this measure was immediately 
telegraphed to Victoria, and an application for the 
charter was at once made by a political clique,^^ which, 
as was understood, was about to combine with the 
party represented by Sir Hugh Allan, then reputed 
one of the richest men in the dominion, and who, with 
his associates, Abbott, Foster, and Brydges, arrived 
at Ottawa in December 1873. About the same time 
John Carling and Major Walker made their appear- 
ance at the capital as the leading representatives of 
the rival company.^^ Thus there was no difficulty in 

2^ Every alternate block of that size along the line of route, then estimated 
at about 2,700 miles, would give only ."-l,r>oO,000 acres. It was proposed to 
furnish the remainder from government lands in other parts of the dominion. 
As the reader will remember, according to the terms of the union tlie land 
grant in B. C. territory was to be 20 miles in depth. The main provisions of 
the bill, as explained by Sir G. E. Cartier, will be found in the Brit. Colonist, 
May 16, 1S72. 

^s Dc Cosmos, Powell, Robertson, Walkeni, Drake, Haymur, Wallace, and 
Thompson. 

" Id., Jan. 1, May 2S, 29, 1873. The first M-as known as the Montreal or 
Quebec company, and the second as the Toronto or Ontario company, from tlie 
fact of their leaders being from Montreal and Toronto respectively. 



A COMPAXY FORMED. 653 

forming an association in command of the requisite 
amount of capital. It was the gohcy of the cabinet, 
however, to select the most responsible and best qual- 
ified men from either party, and before the close of 
the year the charter was granted to an association 
composed of members of both companies, together 
v.'ith some of the wealthiest residents of British Co- 
lumbia. 

On the 1st of March, Allan and his colleagues met at 
Ottawa and elected as directors the charter members.-^ 
A synopsis of the articles of agreement of the Pacific 
Railway Construction Company was published in the 
Colonist of May 14, 1873, giving a list of the names 
of its members, among whom were Sir Hugh Allan, 
Sandford Fleming, J. H. Helmcken, and Sir John 
Macdonald. Allan's prospectus appeared immedi- 
ately afterward in the newspapers of the dominion, 
stating the work proposed to be accomplished, and 
the moneys needed for the purpose. 

Proceeding to London, Sir Hugh attempted to raise 
the sum of $108,000,000 in behalf of his venture— a 
railway to be built through an almost uninhabited and 
unexplored country, with a subsidy of $30,000,000.-'' 
But capital is conservative, and especially English 
capital. Attempting, therefore, to forge in England 
his financial chain, Sir Hugh met with little encour- 
agement. That money invested in a wilderness, though 
f jr the most part a fertile wilderness, would, merel}'' 
through the construction of a railroad, yield within 
the span of a generation, or even of two generations, 

-^ Dr'U. Colonist, March 19, 1S73. Four of the directors were to retire at 
tht end of the first and secoud years, five at the end of the third, and so on 
during; succeeding years. 

'■'"About this date the Northern Pac. railway failure occurred, -^-hile for the 
northern colonization road §4,000,000 was asked, and for other roads §7,000,- 
000. La Minerve, in Brit. Colomst, May 14, 1S73. On the 27tli of October, 
ISSo, tlie Northern Pacific made application to the N. Y. stock exchange to 
list §20,000,000 second-mortgage bonds, its statement for the previous month 
showing as gross earnings Si, 22.', 000, against operating expenses and taxes 
amounting toS,jGO,000, or S<)Or),000 of net earnings. At that date the commoa 
stock was quoted at about §2.3, preferred at 53, and first-mortgage bonds at 
109. 6'. F. Bulletin, Oct. 27, 1S6J. 



654 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

a fair return on the outla}'-, was a proposition that 
found httle favor in Great Britain. Said the earl 
of DufFerin, addressing an audience at Victoria some 
three years later, and alluding of course to the terms of 
the union: ''When the bargain was made, everything 
in Canada was prosperous, and it was supposed that a 
Canadian Pacific railway could be easily constructed. 
But ignorance of the route was not taken into consid- 
eration; and obliging herself to commence the work 
in two years and finish it in ten years, Canada assumed 
a physical impossibility, as the surveying alone would 
require several years."^^ 

Thus the contract made with Sir Hugh Allan and 
his company in 1875 fell through, and was formally 
annulled, the $1,000,000 of cash deposited as security 
being of course returned. 

Meanwhile an election had been held, and one at 
which the main point at issue was the railway scheme. 
The American road, it was said, had cost $200,000,000, 
and the Canadian Pacific would cost $300,000,000, no 
heed being paid to the fact that the cost of the former 
was computed in greenbacks, and at a time when 
greenbacks were worth only fifty to seventy per cent 
of their face value in gold. Moreover, early in 1873 
it became knov/n that Sir Hugh had obtained the con- 
tract by advancing a large sum of money in order to 
carry the elections, and a formal charge was brought 
against the ministry in the dominion parliament.^^ 

30 Victoria telegram, in S. F. Alia, Sept. 2.3, 1876. 

^^Mackenzie's Mem. Can. Pac. llailway, MS., 5; Brit. Colonist, Aug. 7, 
1873. L. S. Huntington of Montreal, on the Gd of April, 1873, made thefol- 
lov.'ing specific cliarges in the dominion parliament: That he wr.s credibly 
informed, and believed he could prove, that in anticipation of the legislation of 
last session in regard to the Pacific railway, an agreement was made between 
Sir Hugh Allan and other Canadian promoters, and G. W. McMullen, acting 
on the part of United States capitalists, whereby the latter agreed to furnish 
all the funds necessary for the construction of tlie contemplated railway, and 
to give the former a certain percentage of interest in consideration of their 
position giving the company the character of a Canadian company with Hugh 
Allan at its head; that the Macdonakl government were aware such negoti- 
ations were pending; and that subsequently thereto an understanding was come 
to between the government, Hugh Allan, and Abbott, one of the members of 
the house of commons, that Allan and his friends should advance a largo sum 
of money for'the purpose of aiding in the election of ministers and their sup- 



MORE WRAXGLIXG. C55 

An extra session was called for October, in order to 
deal with this charo^e, and durinsc the debate on a 
motion of want of confidence, moved by Alexander 
Mackenzie, Sir John Macdonald resigned, the for- 
mer being called upon to form an administration. In 
July 1873 the executive council of British Colum- 
bia, Joseph W. Trutcli being then governor of the 
province,^- formally called the attention of the domin- 
ion government to the non-fulfilment of the terms of 
union so far as they related to the commencement of 
a railroad.^^ Thus the new ministry soon found itself 

poi-ters at the ensuing election, and that Allan and his friends should receive 
the contract tor constructing the railway; that Allan did advance such 
money; and that part of the moneys so expended by him in connection -vvith 
the obtaining of the act of incorporation and charter were paid by U. S. 
capitalists under the agreement with him. Royal Comiiussion Hept Pac. 
liailicaij, 3-G. Sir John Macdonald moved the appointment of a committee 
of iivc to investigate the cliarges, which was agreed to; but before further 
progress had been made, the gov. -gen., Lord Dntlcrin, by t!ie advice of the in- 
culpated ministry, suddenly prorogued the parliament, witliout obtaining its 
consent to the discharge of the committee. In lieu thereof, he appointed a 
royal commission to make the investigation. Macdonahl acknowledged re- 
ceiving .S45,000 from Hugh Allan to control the elections; but claimed that 
it was an independent transaction. It was shown that Allan liad advanced as 
much as 5100,000, and it was presumed that those who took the money and 
used it for political purposes well knew that it was given in the expectation 
and with the understanding that the railway scheme v/oulil receive the sup- 
port of the ministry; the consequence being that everything in connection 
with the project was tainted with suspicion, even though it did not a])pear 
that the interests of the country had been really sacriiiced. London Ti/mt^, 
Sept. 19, 1S73. Huntington's charges were founded upon the contents 
of a package of letters left by Hugh Allan with Mr Starnes for safe-keeping 
after his disagreement with McMulIen and the American capitalists, being 
the correspondence between them on the subject of the railway. A rumor of 
their existence got abroad, and the party in opposition to Macdonald's admin- 
istration became aware of their contents tluough the instrumentality of the 
disappointed ex-partners of Allan's company. 

*-Trutch, a native of England, and a civil engineer by profession, emigrated 
to Cal. at an early day, and obtaining a contract for surveying lands in Or., 
soon afterward removed thither, where he married a sister of the sur.-gen. 
About the year IS53 he arrived in Victoria, where, on the departure of Col 
Moody, he v.-as appointed acting chief commissioner of lands and works, being 
elected, before the confederation, a member of the legislative couiicil. He 
was accounted a shrewd politician, not over-truthful of speech, an able ruler, 
and one having always at lieart t'.ie interests of the jirovince, though never 
forgetting those of Joseph W. Trutch. De Cofimos Govt, MS., 21-2; W/Ji/ 
Brit. Vol., Feb. 15, 1S71; Brit. Col., May 23, 1S7G. In his Brilish Colum- 
bia anil the Canadian Paci/tc liaihi'mj, S/icerh hij and Compllmrntar;/ Dinnrr 
to the. lion. Mr Trutch id the linssdl j'jonse, Ottawa, April 10, 1S71, Montreal 
1S7I, is clearly brought out the then condition of the railroad question, its 
completion within tlic specified time being insisted upon as a fundamental 
contlition of the confederation. 

*^'The committee regret that the construction of the railway has not 



6o6 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

hampered with this long- vexed question, and in the 
hope of arriving at some agreement with the province, 
sent to Victoria, as a special agent, James D. Edgar, 
a Toronto barrister.^ 

Reaching the capital in the spring of 1874, Edgar 
addressed a letter to G. A. Walkem, attorney-general, 
wherein he states that the scheme originally adopted 
had, for a variety of reasons, proved almost imprac- 
ticalDle, and that it was now the aim of the cabinet to 
devise a more feasible plan. The main difficulty was 
the stipulation as to time, and in requesting an ex- 
tension of time, the government asked only for a 
reasonable concession. The engineering difficulties 
were so much greater than had been expected, that it 
would be impossible to build the road within the dates 
specified without wasteful expenditure and financial 
embarrassment. In order to make amends for this 
disappointment, the dominion cabinet proposed to 
begin at once the line between Esquimalt and Na- 
naimo, completing that portion in the shortest possible 
time. As to the mainland, it was useless to begin 
construction before even the entire route had been 
finally selected; but the government would immedi- 

been commeuced, and therefore strongly protest against tlie breacli by the 
doniiuiou govt of a condition of the terms so highly importmt to tlie 
province.' Order in council, in Sess. Papers, Brit. Col., 1881, 146. To this 
minute, forwarded by the lieut-gov. to the secretary of state, E. J. Langcvin, 
under-secretary, merely replied that the despatch and its enclosures would be 
at once laid before the gov.-gen. In Nov. a second minute was forwarded, 
coucheil in somewhat peremptory phrase. Taking into consideration that no 
reply was made to the former protest; that the dominion parliament had 
been prorogued without making any provision for the construction of the rail- 
way; that the legislature of B. C was convened for the 18th of Dec; and that 
the" non-fulfilment of the terms of union had caused much anxiety and dis- 
couragement throughout the province — the conmiittee of council advised the 
lieut-gov. to ask for a decided expression of the policy of the dominion govt. 
Tlie answer was, tiiat the cabinet was giving its most earnest consideration 
to the project for the construction of the Pacific railway, an outline of which 
was given in the speech delivered by Mr Mackenzie at Sarnia on the 25th of 
Nov., a scheme which they believe will be acceptable to the whole dominion, 
including B. C, and that they hope to be able, within a short time, to com- 
municate more definitely with that province on the subject. Id., ISSl, 132. 
Here we have probably the inception of the Pacific railway bill, of which 
more presently. 

^' In one of his letters of introduction, Mackenzie states that he would have 
sent a member of the cabinet but for the near approach of the meeting of par- 
liament. 



WALKEM AND EDGAR. 657 

atcly open a wagon-road along the portion that lay 
within the province, and construct a telegraph line, 
placing British Columbia in direct coninjunication 
with Canada. Although the terms of the union con- 
tained no provision for the amount of expenditure 
during any special period, or on any particular. portion 
of the line, and althoug^h the lenofth falliniif within 
the province was not estimated at more than one fii'th 
of the entire length, the dominion government pro- 
posed, as soon as the surveys were completed, a mini- 
mum expenditure of $1,500,000 a 3'ear on the work 
of construction within the province, thus securing its 
progress without intermission. 

Walkem replied that he would submit Edgar's pro- 
posals to the local administration, but could not advise 
the lieutenant-governor in council to treat them as 
official until he was assured that the former was spe- 
cially accredited as agent of the general government. 
At this letter the barrister took offence, freely ex- 
pressing his disgust, and requesting that the proposals 
of the dominion government should receive the con- 
sideration to which they were entitled. The answer 
of the attorney -general was again somewhat insulting, 
though covered with a thin lacquer of professional 
courtesy. He had received but one letter from Mr 
Mackenzie, he said — and that not an official one — 
wherein Mr Edgar's mission was expressly stated to 
bo for the purpose of holding personal interviews with 
the members of the executive council, in order that 
the policy of the provincial government might be 
ascertained without a tedious correspondence. He 
must be pardoned, therefore, when he considered it 
his duty to ask for Mr Edgar's official authority. 
This information he had not yet received. In his 
further efforts to negotiate with the executive, Edgar 
fared even worse. His letter of introduction to the 
lieutenant-governor, couched in somewhat ambigu- 
ous phrase for the credentials of a plenipotentiary,^^ 

^* It reads as follows: Feb. 21, 1874. Sir: The bearer is James D. Edgar. 
Hist. Bkix. Col. ii 



658 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

was not even delivered, as the executive council 
objected to any communication being made except 
through themselves.^'' Nevertheless he sent a brief 
note to the chief magistrate, enclosing a copy of his 
communication to the attorney-general, though it does 
not appear that any notice was taken either of his 
missive or of its enclosure. On the contrar}^, the 
executive council, by advice of the attornej^-general, 
on the day when the latter received a curt reply from 
the barrister, recommended his Excellency to ascertain 
by telegraph whether Edgar was empowered to nego- 
tiate with the provincial government, and whether 
his propositions would, if accepted, be considered bind- 
ing by the dominion government. Mackenzie's answer 
was brief and somewhat emphatic: "I refer ministry 
to my letter by Mr Edgar, which sufficiently indi- 
cated his mission, and which they recognized. He is 
now recalled, and I await his return and reports." 
Three days later, on the 21st of May, 1874, the attor- 
ney-general sent word to the premier of the dominion: 
"\Vill you kindly answer governor's telegram fully? 
Do Mr Edgar's propositions to change railway terms 
bind 3^our government ?" On the 8th of June Trutch 
was informed that the proposals were withdrawn; 
whereupon the latter at once appealed to the home 
government,^^ complaining of a breach in the terms 
of the union, a petition being also forv/arded to her 
Majesty. 

Thus through a want of precision in the negotia- 

Esq., barrister, Toronto, who visit% Columbia as the agent of the dominion 
government to consult with your government with reference to the late agi- 
tation concerning an extension of time for the construction of the Pacific 
railway beyond that promised in the terms of union. Wr Edgar will ex- 
plain to your Excellency our anxiety to do everything in our power to meet 
the views of your people. He v. i:l be (_1 id to receive your suggestions con- 
cerning matters which may require attention. 1 am, etc., A. Mackenzie. 

^'^In a despatch to Trutcli, dated Ottawa, Mar. 24, 1875, Mackenzie states 
that if he had known this to be the case he would have directed Edgar to de- 
liver the letter notwithstanding the objection. 

^' Copies of the petition and of all the correspondence, including Edgar's 
private instructions from the premier, bis communication to the attj'-gen., and 
bis report to the sec. of state for Canada, will be found in the Railwcuj Papers, 
in Sess. Papers, B. C, 1881, 155-79. 



PACIFIC RAILWAY BILL. 659 

tions with the provincial executive, through want of 
statesmanship on one side, and through want of for- 
bearance on both sides, a serious rupture was threat- 
ened between the province and the dominion. The 
people of British Columbia — now sorely discontent — 
were not to blame if their hopes and their ambition 
had been unduly excited by promises which it was 
almost impossible to fulfil. Nor was their discontent 
diminished by the passage, late in the session of 
1874, of the Pacific Railway bill. According to this 
project, introduced by Mackenzie, the line was to be 
divided into four sections: first, from Lake Nipissing 
to the w^estern end of Lake Superior; second, from 
Lake Superior to Red River, in Manitoba; third, 
from Red River to some point between Fort Edmon- 
ton and the foot of the Rocky Mountains; fourth, 
from the w^estern terminus of the third section to 
some point in British Columbia. The government 
was to be at liberty to divide any of these sections 
into subsections, and might at its discretion construct 
the line, or any part of it, as a public work. Con- 
tractors were to receive a subsidy of $10,000 per mile, 
together with 20,000 acres of land, of fair average 
quality and in alternate sections, for each mile con- 
tracted fur, and also a guarantee of four per cent 
interest for twenty-five j-ears, on such sum as might 
be stipulated in the contract. The contractors were 
to own and run their sections, subject to such regula- 
tions as to rates of fare and freight, accommodation, 
and number and description of trains, as might be made 
from time to time by the governor in council. The 
government reserved the riglit to sell two thirds of 
all the land grants at such prices as might be agreed 
upon by the contractors, the proceeds to be paid over 
to the latter, and also the right to purchase the rail- 
way, or any portion of it, for a sum not exceeding the 
actual cost, with ten per cent added, the subsidies in 
land and money being first deducted from the amounf 

" Wilson's Canada and TJie Can. Pac. Railwaij, 13-14. 



CGO THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

To this measure there were several weighty objec- 
tions. First of all, it was framed in such a manner 
that detached sections of the road might be built and 
operated by several companies, and those interspersed 
with other sections owned by the dominion. It was 
a moral certainty that if responsible parties could be 
found to accept contracts they would take only those 
which would give them the best sections, leaving the 
remainder to the government. No transcontinental 
railway in America, whether built or in contempla- 
tion, would lay open to settlement so vast an extent 
of agricultural land as the Canadian Pacific, and the 
more valuable sections should have been so distributed 
as to aid in the construction of inferior portions. 
Second, the condition whereby government retained 
the right to sell two thirds of the land grants, at such 
prices as might be agreed upon, was one that few busi- 
ness men would entertain, for the dominion would 
possess as much land along the line of route as the 
contractors, and could force the latter to accept its 
own terms. Then the clause depriving contractors of 
the privilege of determining rates of fare and freight 
was most objectionable, for on this matter, even if 
traffic were abundant, the profits would mainly de- 
pend. Finally, the power reserved by government to 
buy up any or all of the sections, at ten per cent 
above their cost, was a stipulation not likely to find 
favor with capitalists. Under such an agreement, a 
portion of the line might be w^orked, for instance, for 
a term of twenty years, by a compan}^ of stockhold- 
ers; and if, at the end of that period, their section 
had developed into a paying propert}", they might be 
called upon at any time to surrender it, receiving 
back barely their purchase money, with one half of 
one per cent a year added by way of interest, and 
losing perhaps, meanwhile, several millions in work- 
ing expenses.^^ 

^' Wilso)i's Canada and Can. Pac. Railway, passim. Mackenzie's project 
■was vigorously attacked in British Columbia in connection with political 
issues. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

1S74-18S5. 

The Carnarvon Terms — Their Acceptance — Defeat of the Esqttimalt 
AND Nanaimo Railway Bill— The Provincial Legisl.vtdre's Petition 
TO her Majesty— PlEjoindeu of the Dominion Government — Visit of 
THE Earl of Dufferin— His Speech at Victoria— Threats of Se- 
cession — A Second Petition to the Qceen— Proposed Annexation 
TO THE United States— One Moi:e Petition— Contract with the 
Syndicate — Engineering Difficulties — Port Moody — Reasons for 
its Selection as the Terminus— Completion of the Line— A Costly 
Undertaking— The Road Built as a National Highway. 

On the 11th of June, 1874, the secretary of state for 
the colonies was informed by telegram that a delegate 
was about to proceed to London for the purpose' of 
laying before the home government the complaints of 
the provincial legislature as to the breach in the terms 
of union. Exactl}^ one week later a confidential mes- 
sage from the banking firm of Faulkner, Bell, & Co. 
was received by Governor Trutch, stating that the 
earl of Carnarvon had consented to arbitrate, and that 
both parties had concurred. In a despatch to the 
governor-general, bearing the same date, the earl re- 
marked that it was neither his wish nor any part of 
his duty to interfere in the controversy. It scorned 
to be one which the dominion government and legisla- 
ture should bring to a satisfactory conclusion, and her 
Majesty's government was reluctant to take any action 
which might imply a doubt whether the former would 
deal with the province in a fair and liberal spirit. He 
tendered his services only because he was resolved 



662 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

that no means should be spared to bring about a speedy 
and amicable settlement of a question which could not, 
without disadvantage to both parties, remain the sub- 
ject of a prolonged and acrimonious discussion.^ 

After some correspondence on both sides, Earl 
Dufferin forwarding for consideration a report of tJie 
privy council, in which it was made to appear that the 
government of British Columbia had no just or rea- 
sonable ground of complaint, while on the other hand, 
the attorney -general for the province argued his case 
with considerable acumen, on the 17th of November, 
1874, the decision was rendered. Only in two mate- 
rial points did it differ from the terms proposed by 
Mr Edgar: first, the minimum expenditure within the 
province after the completion of the surveys was to 
be $2,000,000 instead of $1,500,000 a year; second, 
the limit of time for the completion of the road "from 
the Pacific seaboard to a point at the western end of 
Lake Superior, at which it will fall into connection 
with the existing lines of railway through a portion of 
the United States, and also \vith the navigation on 
Canadian waters," was altered to the 31st of Decem- 
ber, 1890. To construct thus early the remainder of 
the line north of Lake Superior, extending to the Ca- 
nadian lines then in operation, ought not, as the earl 
considered, to be required. He hoped, however, that 
at no very distant day a continuous line of road would 
be built throughout the length of the dominion.^ 
The earl's decision, or as it was afterward known, the 
Carnarvon terms, was accepted by both parties, though 
with a reservation on the side of Canada, providing 
that, in accordance with the resolution passed by the 
dominion parliament in April 1871, the line should be 
built without increase in the rate of taxation.^ 

'For copy of despatch, see Sess. Papers, B. C, 18S1, 182-3. 

'^ hi., 210-11; Mackenzie's Mem. Can. Pac. Rnihoay, MS., 5-6. 

*In a minute of council dated March 13, 187G, we read: 'It must be borne 
iu mind that every step in the negotiation was necessarily predicated upon 
and subject to the conditions of the resolution of tlie house of commons passed 
in 1871, contemporaneously with the adoption of the terms of union with B. 
C. subsequently enacted in the C. P. railway act of 1872, and subsequently 



THE QUESTION REOPENED. GG3 

Thf3 portion of Mr Edgar's proposal relating to the 
construction of a railway from Esquinialt to Nanainio 
was also embodied in the Carnarvon terms. When, 
however, the premier introduced a bill for this pur- 
pose in the dominion parliament, the measure, though 
carried in the commons, was defeated in the senate 
by a majority of two,* among those who voted against 
it being several members of the premier's party. The 
building of this road, it was argued, was merely in- 
tended as compensation for delay, and was altogether 
apart from the terms of union, in which there was no 
obligation to extend the line to Vancouver Island. 
Thus the entire question, which had been considered 
as practically settled, was reopened for discussion, and 
the negotiations which ensued served but to widen 
the breach between the two governments. 

Early in 187G a despatch was forwarded by Gover- 
nor Trutch to the secretary of state for Canada, en- 
closing a copy of a petition to her Majesty, in which 
it was complained that the dominion government had 
almost entirely disregarded the terms of the Carnar- 
von settlement. They had neither commenced the 
building of the railroad on the island nor on the main- 
land, nor of the wagon-road or engineering trail 
intended to facilitate railroad work; nor had the agree- 
ment relating to the construction of the provincial 
section of the transcontinental telegraph line been 
carried out. It was claimed that British Columbia 
had fulfilled all the conditions of her agreement with 
Canada, while, through the repeated violations by the 
dominion of the railway terms, all classes of the pop- 
ulation of the province had suffered loss. Distrust 

recnactcd, after a large addition had been made to the rate of taxation, in the 
C. P. railway act of 187-t — that the public aid to be given to secure the accom- 
plishment of the undertaking should consist of such liberal grants of land and 
such subsidy in money or other aid, not increasing the then existing rate oc 
taxation, as the parliament of Canada sliould thereafter determine. Tliis de- 
termination not to involve the country in a hopeless burden of debt is sus- 
tained by public opinion everj^where throughout the dominion, and must of 
necessity control the action of the governinent.' 

*Tiie vote was 23 to 21. Papers rd. Mission- Ue Cosmos, 74. 



664 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

had been created; trade and commerce had been un- 
settled ; the progress of the country had been checked, 
and the confident anticipations of commercial and 
])olitical advantage to be derived from the construc- 
tion of the line had given place to a feeling of depres- 
sion. The petitioners therefore submitted that the 
conditions of the settlement effected through the in- 
tervention of the secretary of state for the colonies 
should be carried out in letter and in spirit.^ 

In a report of a committee of the privy council of 
Canada, dated the 13th of March, mainly in answer 
to these allegations, is a review of the whole contro- 
versy as it then stood. The western terminus of 
the road, urged the dominion, was a question that did 
not enter into the agreement between Canada and 
British Columbia, but one to be determined by the 
gov^ernor-general in council. The first action taken 
in this matter was in June 1873, when, most injudi- 
ciously in the opinion of the committee, an order in 
council was passed selecting Esquimalt as the ter- 
minus. If this decision had not been reversed, the 
government would have been compelled to construct 
thence more than a hundred and sixty miles of rail- 
way to some point opposite Bute Inlet, at a cost of 
about $7,500,000, while the bridging of the Narrows 
— the latter a most gigantic undertaking — would re- 
quire a further outlay of more than $20,000,000. The 
Mackenzie administration had from the first declined 
to adopt this portion of the policy of its predecessors. 
They had oflJered, however, as compensation for dela}^ 
a cash bonus of $750,000, or about $75 per capita of 
the white population of the province; but this offer 
had been refused.^ So far from the province having 

^Sess. Papers, B. C, 1881, 329-31. 

^As to tliis matter there was soino misunderstanding on the part of the 
government of B. C. In a report of the privy council dated Sept. '20, 1875, 
and referring mainly to the construction of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo rail- 
way, it is recommended that tiio people of U. C- should construct this line them- 
selves, or undertake sucii other local public works as they think best, and that 
tlie compensation granted by Canada 'for any delays which may take j)lace 
in the construction of the Pacific railway should be in the form of a cash 



SEPARATION THREATENED. 665 

suffered loss and deprivation from the union, as was 
alleged, it bad already derived therefrom no incon- 
siderable advantage. Apart from railway expenditure, 
Canada had, between the date of the union and the 
close of 1875, spent $1,204,388 over the amount 
derived from revenue.^ The object of the provincial 
legislature appeared to be, not to secure the com- 
pletion of the road as a national undertaking under 
such conditions as would tend to the welfare of the 
entire community, but to enforce an enormous ex- 
penditure, at whatever cost to Canada, within their 
own province, and for which that province could 
render no equivalent. The urgency with which the 
government of British Columbia demanded this ex- 
penditure, with a view to secure vast profits for a 
small population, would not encourage the people of 
the dominion to support their rulers in the effort to 
fulfil, as far as possible, the appalling obligations to 
which they were committed. In conclusion, it re- 
mained only, under the circumstances, to endeavor to 
construct the railway as rapidly as the resources of 
the country would permit. 

Here for the moment negotiations practically ceased, 
and separation from the dominion was for the time 
openly threatened, the executive council expressing 
in their reply the fullest confidence that her Majesty 
would not require her subjects in British Columbia, 

bonus,' to bo expended as the legislature might determine. In the petition to 
the queen this was interpreted as an indemnity to be paid on condition tliat 
the agreement for a j'carly expenditure of §2,01)0,000 within tlie province, and 
for the completion of the road to Lake Superior before the end of 1S90, should 
be sui'rendercd. In a letter to Dulicrin, dated May '2,), 1S7G, Carnarvon says: 
'I cannot but suppose that the complaints that have readied me from the 
govt of 15. C. have been founded on a misapprehension, with reference to the 
expression used in the Canadian minute of council,. . .as well as to the in- 
teu'i-ions of the dominion minister.' Correspo]ul('nre Can. Pac. liailwaij, 11. 

' The total expenditure for the four and a half years was i?;>,08;!,r)or>."J 1 , and 
the total revenue S1,S79,"220.30. Meanwhile the railway expenditure was 
SS7G, 141.30, making a total excess of expenditure of §2,0b0,-lb;j.30, or about 
S20S per capita of the population, ^ess. Papers, D. ('., ISSl, '239. To this 
the c.Nccutivc council of the province replied that a large part of the expendi- 
tui-e was incidental to the cxLcusiun of the system of confederation over a ue\T 
province, and tliafc the disbursements would be greatly reduced after the com- 
pletion of the public buildings and works provided for in the terms of union. 



636 THE CANADIAN TACIFIC RAILWAY. 

however few in number, to submit to injustice from the 
majority to which they had united themseh^es on dis- 
tinct and careful!}^ considered terms. Unless means 
were promptly taken to remove this sense of injus- 
tice, and to satisfy the people that their rights would 
be maintained, the " growing alienation of sentiment 
must result prejudicially to the interests of the em- 
pire."^ 

In a despatch to the earl of Carnarvon, enclosing a 
copy of the report to the privy council, the governor- 
general states that he is about to visit the western 
portion of the dominion, mainly with a view to bring 
about a settlement of the differences with British Co- 
lumbia. From this visit much was expected. With 
the authority of his rank and office, Duffer in com- 
bined, in no limited degree, sound, practical judg- 
ment, tact, and temper, together with much official 
experience. He was an adroit and versatile diplomate, 
one who never gave offence, and who well knew how 
to make allowance for local prejudices, and to smooth 
artificial impediments. If he failed in his efforts to 
adjust the dispute, then the difficulty might almost 
be regarded as insurmountable. So hopeful, how- 
ever, was the secretary for the colonies of his suc- 
cess, that he postponed his reply to the minutes 
of council from British Columbia and Canada, and 
deferred laying before her Majesty the petition of 
the provincial legislature until he was informed as to 
the result of Dutferin's visit.^ 

After making a tour of the provinces, northward 
as far as the borders of Alaska, and eastward to 
Kamloop, on the 20th of September, 1876, the 
governor-general addressed a deputation of the recep- 
tion committee at Victoria. Dulferin was a trained 
and polished speaker for an English nobleman, some- 

^ Id., 18S1, 245. Tlie report of the executive council is dated June 3, 
1876. 

^Correspondence Can. Pac. Railway, 11. 



DUFFERIN'S ADDRESS. 667 

what ornate, but still an orator of marked ability. 
All hij eloquence was thrown away, however, on this 
self-willed audience. In vain dicl he exert to the 
utmost his well-known powers of pleasing; in vain 
did he compliment his hearers on their unswerv- 
ing loyal t}^ and the province on its amazing resources; 
in vain did he dwell on the idyllic beauty of its scen- 
ery, its noble harbors, and its labyrinth of navigable 
channels, winding for thousands of miles around 
islands, promontories, and peninsulas, unruffled by 
the faintest swell from the neighboring ocean, and 
adapted as well to the largest merchantman as to 
the frailest canoe; in vain did he point to the agri- 
cultural and pastoral resources of the country, its 
wealth in gold and silver, coal and iron, fisheries and 
Ibrests, winding up his glowing picture by declaring 
British Columbia to be " a glorious province — a pr<.)v- 
ince which Canada should be proud to possess, and 
whose association with the dominion she ought to 
regard as the crowing triumph of federation." Of 
all this the people of British Columbia were well 
awire, though probably the}^ did not object to being 
reminded of it. They had never doubted that their 
country was one which Canada should be proud to 
pi^ssess, and had always regarded their union as the 
bi'ightest jewel in the dominion crown. What thuy 
complained of was that Canada did not keep faith 
with them, and thereb}'' show a becoming pride in her 
new acquisition, instead of appearing entirely indiifer- 
ent as to the stability of the federal edifice. Passing to 
the main point of his address, the earl assured his audi- 
ence that he came on no diplomatic mission, nor as 
one intrusted with any announcement either from the 
imperial or the dominion government. His visit was 
in order to become acquainted with them as the rep- 
resentative of her Majesty, to ascertain their wants 
and wishes, and to learn as nuicli as possible concern- 
ing the physical features and resources of the prov- 
ince. He had no desire to persuade them into any 



668 THE CANADIAX PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

line of action that did not accord with their own 
interests, and he would neither make any new prom- 
ises on behalf of his government nor renew any old 
ones; least of all did he wish to force upon them any 
further modification of the Carnarvon terms. Nev- 
ertheless, the greater part of his speech was devoted 
to an elaborate exculpation of the Canadian govern- 
ment, though he did not deny that British Columbia 
had suftered in many respects through the non-ful- 
filment of the terms of union. 

Touching on the question of the Esquimalt and 
Nanaimo railway, he stated that he well knew the 
importance which they attached to this portion of 
the work, and admitted that its immediate execution 
was definitely included in the Carnarvon settlement. 
He was not surprised, therefore, that the miscarriage 
of this part of the bargain should have caused so much 
irritation. "Two years have passed," he said, ''since 
the Canadian government undertook to commence the 
construction of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo railway, 
and the Nanaimo and Esquimalt railway is not even 
commenced, and what is more, there does not at pres- 
ent seem a prospect of its being commenced. What, 
then, is the history of the case? and who is answerable 
for your disappointment? I know you consider Mr 
Mackenzie. I am not here to defend Mr Mackenzie, 
his policy, his proceedings, or his utterances, I hope 
this will be clearly understood." Notwithstanding 
this disavowal, however, the earl proceeded to defend 
the premier's administration, as an advocate would 
plead before a court. ^° As to the proposed money 

^° 'It is asserted, and I imagine with truth,' he said, 'that Mr Mackenzie 
and his political friends had always been opposed to many portions of Canada's 
bargain with B. C. It therefore came to be considered in this jjrovince that 
the new government was an enemy to the Pacific railway. But I believe this 
to have been, and to be, a complete misapprehension. I believe the Pacific 
railway has no better friend than Mr Mackenzie; and that he was only op- 
posed to the time terms in the bargain, because he believed them impossible 
of accomplishment, and that a conscientious endeavor to fulfil them would 
unnecessarily and ruinously increase the financial expenditure of the country; 
and in both these opinions Mackenzie was umloubtedly in the right.' So 
persistently had the liberal loremier been accused of breach of faith, insincer- 



SPECIAL PLEADING. 609 

compensation, he could not bold out any hope that its 
amount would be increased, and be was of opinion 
that, in making tliis ofter, after the defeat of the rail- 
way bill in tlie senate, Mackenzie bad adopted the 
only alternative left open to him. Otherwise, every 
item in the Carnarvon terms was in course of fulfd- 
ment. The thirty millions of money and the fifty 
million acres of land were ready; the surveys were 
being pushed forward to completion; the profiles of 
tiie main line bad been taken out; the wagon-road 
would follow jxn'i pa55it with construction; several 
tliousand miles of the telegraph line had been built; 
and now that the terminus on the mainland appeared 
to have been selected, at Bute Inlet," tenders would 
probably be invited at an early date. If the railway 
was once completed to Bute Inlet, it could not stop 
tliere, and as soon as the tide of trafiSc fairly set in 
with Australia, China, and Japan, the line must, of 
necessity, be continued to Esquimalt. In that case 
the Nanaimo road would almost spring into existence 
of its own accord, and the people of British Columbia 
would be in possession not only of the $750,000 of 
compensation mone}', but of that for which it was 
paid. As to the threat of secession, of which more 
later, he remarked that, if hasty counsels should so 
far prevail as to render necessar}^ a readjustment of 
their political relations, he feared that Victoria would 
be the greatest sufferer. There were men with whom 
he had held much pleasant intercourse, and from whom 

ity, and double-dealing, that at this time three fourths of the people of B. C. 
vcie opposed to iiini. In the S/andard of Jan. 1, 1.875, was publislicd a val- 
ediction to tlie closing scene of 1S73, dedicated, without permission, to the 
cabinet of the donnniun of Canada, and especially to Alexander Mackenzie, 
by the author, James ^lacBraire Smith. • 

' Then place on view, in the Centennial Part, 

Our hcn/s pic-lure, labolloa, Lrokcn Terms; 

Aud if, in flesh, Ihe portrait in these liucs 

Sliould swell the crowd on ludepeudenco Day, 

Give him n stciion where uo pnigress shines, 

Marked, Plant from Sco.laud raised in Canada. 
Fari'well! Tho pr-n shall never rust 

That wrote Hcpudiatiou o'er thy dust." 

"At this date it was coninionly l)elieved that such was t!ie case, though, 
in fact, no terminus had as yet been linally selected. 



670 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

he had received the utmost kindness and courtesy, 
but who declared that if the legislature of Canada was 
not compelled forthwith to build the Esquimalt and 
Nanaimo railway, they would, notwithstanding- the 
premier's offer of a mone}^ equivalent, bring about the 
separation of the province from the dominion. This, 
he declared, they could not do, or, at least, such a 
proposition would find no favor on the mainland. In 
rejecting the railway bill — and this was now their 
main grievance — the senate had merely exercised its 
legitimate functions, and on this matter there was 
nothing more to be said. Should, however, the in- 
fluence of these persons prevail, what good purpose 
could it serve? British Columbia would still remain 
a portion of the dominion. The line of the railway 
would probably be deflected toward the south, in which 
case New Westminster would become the capital of 
the province, the seat of government and of justice, 
the social centre of the British domain in the north- 
west, and would doubtless develop into a prosperous 
city. Burrard Inlet would contain a thriving com- 
mercial port, where the miners of Cariboo would ex- 
pend each winter their stores of gold-dust. Esquimalt 
would, of course, be retained as a naval station on the 
Pacific; but Vancouver Island and its inhabitants, 
whose influence was due rather to their intelligence 
than their numbers, would sink into insignificance. 
Nanaimo would become the principal town, while 
Victoria w^ould lapse into the condition of a village, 
until the growth of a healthier sentiment should pave 
the way for her readmission into the dominion. •^"•^ 

Though Dufferin's visit allayed somewhat the pop- 
ular discontent, it failed altogether in its main purpose, 
which was to obtain from the people of British Colum- 
bia their consent to the premier's latest proposal to 
evade the obligations of the dominion. It must be 
admitted, however, that his task was one of peculiar 

^^ A copy of the earl's address will be found in Sess. Papers, B. C, 1881, 
249-Gl. 



THE EAP.L'S FAILURE. 671 

cliiricult3\ He was compelled to appear before them 
ill the dual character of a representative of the crown 
and of an independent constitutional sj'Stem — func- 
tions always difficult to reconcile, and especiall}' so at 
tlie time of his visit. In fulfilling his mission, he was 
compelled to assume in a measure the character of a 
diplomate. While attemping to show that Canada 
had acted in good faith, he urged the province to 
accept what was in fact merely the conipromise of a 
compromise, the offer of a government, which had 
virtually repudiated its obligations, to pay so much in 
the pound to a creditor. It must be admitted that, 
on this occasion, the viceroy failed to do justice either 
to himself or to his office, pleading, as he did, before 
her Majesty's subjects the cause of the Mackenzie 
administration. Granted that he found it necessary 
to keep his ministers in good humor, to remedy their 
blunders, and if possible to prevent the secession of 
British Columbia, it was no part of his duty thus to 
attempt the negotiation of a bargain between his own 
cabinet and the executive council of one of his prov- 
inces, still less to enact the role of apologist for his 
own government." 

In an address presented by the people of British 
Columbia to the governor-general a few days before 
his speech at the capital, it was stated that the wide- 
spread feeling of dissatisfaction caused by the action 
of the dominion government had been intensified by 
the remarks of men prominent in affairs of state, who 
appear-xl to regard the province merely as a source of 
trouble and expense, and as one whose withdrawal 

"The comments of the English press on Earl Dufferin's visit and the rail- 
way (jucstion were for the most part adverse to tiie dominion, and some of 
thcin were a little severe. See the London Slandurd, Oct. 17, 1S7G; Poll 
Mall Gazi-ttt', Sept. 21, 1S70. On the other hand, the Lonlon Times remarks: 
' It is, judging hy past experience, a moderate estimate to suppose that prob- 
ably a genoraUon will elapse before the Canadian Pacific ndlway can pay its 
working expenses. Is it worth Canada's wiiile? We doubt it. At all events, 
it must 1)0 apparent to any mind that its construction means jjrobably an addi- 
tion of at least from forty to tifty millions sterling <lebt to the already heavy 
Canadian dt bt before the line has been worked live years.' Victoria Stand- 
ard, Nov. IG, 1S77. 



672 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

would not be regretted. The allusion was in part to the 
premier, whose speeches implied that the connection 
was embarrassing and unprofitable. The minister of 
justice^* had also declared that, should British Colum- 
bia not bo content with what Canada chose to give 
her, she had better withdraw from the union. ^^ " If," 
continues the address, "the Canadian government 
fail to take practical steps to carry into effect the 
terms solemnly accepted by them, we most respect- 
fully inform j^our Excellency that, in the opinion of 
a large number of people of this province, the with- 
drawal of the province from the confederation will be 
the inevitable result." 

Nearly two years elapsed, and notwithstanding the 
assurances of Dufferin and Carnarvon,^" no decisive 
action was taken. The Wasatch Mountains were full 
of surveyors and theodolites; but nothing had been 
done toward the actual construction of the line within 
the province, nor had even tenders been invited. In 
September 1878, therefore, an address from the pro- 
vincial legislature w^as forwarded to her ]\Iajesty, in 
Avhich, after once more setting forth their grievances, 
the petitioners ask that in the event of the dominion 
government failing to carry out before the 1st of May 
the agreement of 1874, "British Columbia shall have 
the right to exclusively collect and retain her cus- 
toms and excise duties, and to withdraw from the 
union; and shall also in any event be entitled to be 
compensated by the dominion for losses sustained by 
reason of past delaj^s, and the failure of the dominion 
government to carry out their railway and other obli- 
gations to the province. "^^ 

" Mr Blake, one of the leaders of the liberal, or as it was termed, the 'grit' 
party. 

'^His remarks were indorsed by Sir Alexander Gait, a prominent con- 
servative leader. Pall Mall Gazette, Sept. 22, 1S7G. 

I'^In a despatch to Dullcrin, dated Dec. 18, 1876, Carnarvon says: 'I fully 
hope and believe that, after the very limited delay of a single summer, the 
province of 13. C. will find that there va no longer any obstacle to the active 
prosecution of the undertaking.' Correxpondence Can. Pac. Pailway, 15. 

1' For cojiy of the address, see Jour. Legid., B C, 1878, 105-7; Se.-iS. Papers, 
.8. C, 1881, li7S-80. 



ANNEXATION. 673 

This was sufficiently decisive, and if, at this juncture, 
British Columbia had determined to secede, neither 
England nor Canada could have prevented it; for it 
is the long-established policy of the home government 
that colonies shall not be retained against their will. 
In accordance with constitutional law, a court would 
probably have held that the union could not be 
severed, and that the dominion must fulfil its part of 
the contract or make compensation for failure and 
delay. But the dominion could no more have insisted 
on the integrity of the union than could the province 
have compelled Canada to do her justice, for British 
colonies are no more liable to coercive jurisdiction 
than are sovereign states. It is almost certain that 
the separation of British Columbia would have been 
followed at no long interval by annexation to the 
United States; nor would the imperial government 
have had any just grounds for exception to such a 
measure. 

Long before this date, annexation, if not openly dis- 
cussed, had at least suggested itself to men's thoughts 
as one way, and perhaps the best way, out of the dif- 
ficulty.^^ Nor can it be believed that the United 
States would have refused to accept this portion of 
England's domain, which, lying between Alaska and 
Washington, is the only break in the stretch of 
their Pacific seaboard. The province is indeed a 
magnificent one. With a vast area, a scant popu- 
lation, and boundless resources, as j^et almost un- 
touched; with ports on the most direct line of travel 
between Europe and Asia, Victoria being but twenty 
dsijs distance by steamer from Hong-Kong — the trade 
of this country is destined to become a not inconsider- 
able factor in the commerce of the world. Taking 
Yokohama as a central point, its distance from Livcr- 

" For comments of the Pacific coast press on the threatened secession and 
probable annexation of the province, sec, among others, S. F. Alta, Dec. 29, 
1874, April IG, Aug. 14, 1S7G; Brit. Colonist, April 23, 1S79; Portland Tele- 
gram, March 22, 1879. 

Hist. Kbit. Col. 43 



674 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

pool via Montreal and Port Moody is computed at 
10,963 miles, and by way of New York and San 
Francisco at 12,038 miles, a difference of 1,075 miles 
in favor of the former route. At this date the 
Panamd canal was believed to be impossible of ac- 
complishment at any reasonable expense of life, labor, 
and capital. If Great Britain sought for means of 
commercial intercourse with the far east and her 
Australian colonies, other than these which Cook and 
Vancouver had discovered in the eighteenth century, 
and De Lesseps had endeavored to improve in the 
nineteenth, where was she to look for them save to the 
dominion or to the United States? And what would 
be the prospect for England's commerce with the east 
should British Columbia become one with the United 
States? — a danger all the more imminent because 
British Columbia still contained a very large percent- 
age of Americans. Though the dominion might 
afford to slight these considerations, the home gov- 
ernment could not. The question was no longer as 
between Canada, with her four millions of inhabitants, 
and British Columbia, with her few thousands; but 
between the mother country and one of her most dis- 
tant and sparsely settled, though most valuable, colo- 
nies. 

Fortunately there occurred at thisjuncture a change 
of administration in the Canadian government. In 
answer to a telegram from Victoria, dated the IGth 
of January, 1879, wherein it was stated that no an- 
swer had yet been received to the last petition of the 
legislature, the following reply was returned by Sir 
John A. Macdonald : " Railway matters are now 
under consideration, and your representations and 
claims will receive our best attention." Then followed 
one, dated a few weeks later: "The attention of the 
present ministry, on taking office, was not called to 
this petition, and it remained unnoticed. On its be- 
ing discovered, it was transmitted to England. The 
government here greatly regret the oversight." After 



READY TO BEGEN". CTi 

some further negotiation/^ surveys being now almost 
completed, Port Moody, or Burrard Inlet, finally se- 
lected as the terminus/*^ and all being in readiness for 

^^In which, as usual, B. C. insists on havinjr her own way, without much 
regard to the interests of the dominion. On the 24th of April, 1 879, a tele- 
gram was forwarded to the premier of Canada: ' House regrets delay of your 
railroad policy, and unanimously request to be informed of policy immedi- 
ately, and whether construction and vigorous prosecution will take place in 
province this year;' and to the secretary of state for the colonies: 'No action 
j'ct taken on railway by dominion government. This legislature in session 
awaiting answer to petition, unanimously and respectfully request immediate 
reply to its prayer.' The secretary of state for the dominion replied: ' Cana- 
dian government is determined to commence work of construction in B. C. 
this season, and to press it vigorously.' Oct. 2, 1879, Walkem tclegi-aphs to 
Macdonald: 'Delay in commencing railway causes great dissatisfaction. We 
strongly urge you not to overlook your assurances to our legislature.' The 
premier answered: ' 127 miles to be constructed forthwith, from Yale to 
Kamloops.' Sess. Papers, B. C, 1881, 284-8. 

■•^"^ In the winter of 1874 the building in which were kept the field-note 
books, unfinished plans, etc., was destroyed by fire, nearly every scrap of 
paper being consumed. Tims were lost the results of three years' la1)or, ob- 
tained at a cost of some £300,000, and it was necessary to commence the work 
afresh. At this date Mr Fleming was of opinion that a d'rect line from Tcto 
Jaune Cache could be found via Clearwater and Stillwater lakes to the Eraser, 
the crossing being a short distance above Big Bend, and ascending westward 
— on the eastern slope of the Cascade Range— by the valley of the Chilkotin, 
joining the Bute Inlet route on the summit level. Later explorations showed 
tliis route to be impracticable. Almost the entire force was employed on the 
survey of the Eraser between Tete Jaune Cache and Fort George, and the sev- 
eral lines westward from the latter jjoint, toward the mouth of the Skeena, 
Gardner, Dean, and Bute inlets. Gardner and Dean inlets seemed at first to 
promise best, but ultimately the former was abandoned, as no favorable route 
could be found through the Cascade Range. The Dean Inlet line was instru- 
mentally surveyed, and a favorable line marked out, though with high gra- 
dients toward the sea. Harbor accommodation was also less favorable than 
represented, but otherwise the Dean Inlet was preferred to the Bute Inlet 
route. The latter was fifty miles longer, and it would be necessary to build 
the railway to Frederic Arm, on the northern mouth of the inlet, while navi- 
gation, both toward Queen Charlotte Sound and the strait of Fuca, was diffi- 
cult. The advocates of this route were so well aware of these obstacles that 
they never proposed to encounter them, but rather to cross at once from 
Frederic Arm to Otter Cove, V. I., and thence to Esquimalt, a distance of 
265 miles. Certain advocates of the Bute Inlet route pointed out that a har- 
bor equal to that of Esquimalt could bo reached on the outer coast of V. I. at 
Quatsino. When all the difficulties connected with the northern routes, in- 
cluding Bute Inlet, became known, it was determined to try the lower Eraser 
and Tliompson rivers by instrumental survey. The result satisfied the govt, 
antl Port Moody, or English Bay, on Burrard Inlet, was selected as the ter- 
minus for several reasons, among which may Ijc mentioned: 1st. Tliat the line 
to Port Moody was shorter and cheaper than the one to Bute Inlet. 2d. That 
no gradient exceeded 50 feet to tlie mile, while on the Bute Inlet route there 
were gradients of more than 100 feet to the mile. 3(1. That the Burrard In- 
let route could be commenced at Yale, to whicli point the Eraser was navi- 
gable, and extended to tidal communication. 4th. That the construction of 
125 miles to Kamloop Lake would immediately open up the heart of the 
province. 5th. That the line would pass through or close to the largest coal- 
field yet discovered on the Island. 6th. That the open sea could be reached 



676 THE CAXADIAN PACIFIC EAILWAY. 

the virtual fulfilment of the railway clause contained 
in the terms of union, a telegram was received on the 
9th of January, 1880, from the secretary of state for 
Canada, asking that, in accordance with these terms, 
twenty miles of land on either side of the line be con- 
veyed to the dominion government. On the 8th of 
May the conveyance was authorized, and on the 
25th of March, 1881, an act was passed by the legis- 
lature of British Columbia, providing that "the su- 
preme court of Canada and the exchequer court, or 
the supreme court of Canada alone, according to the 
provisions of the act of the parliament of Canada 
laiown as the supreme and exchequer court act," 
should have jurisdiction in controversies between the 
dominion and the province.^^ 

Thus did British Columbia, possibly of her own 
free-will, though probably through a slip of the Hon- 
orable George A. Walkem, bind herself once more to 
the dominion, and by a statute which neither Eng- 
land nor Canada had power to enact. Yet one more 
petition was presented to her Majesty, wherein the 
oft-recited grievances were rehearsed, the construction 
of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo branch insisted upon, 
and the threat of secession repeated. ^^ To this the 
dominion government replied : "As regards the prayer 

much more easily than by way of Bute Inlet. Mackenzie's Mem. Can. Pac. 
Ilailivay, MS., 8-11. A description of each year's explorations and surveys 
will be found in Memmg's Reports, Can. Pac. Uailway. In this connection 
may be mentioned the geologic survey of Canada, undertaken in 1871 by Al- 
fred R. C. Selwyn, F. R. S., assisted by James Richardson of the geologic 
staff, for the purpose of ascertaining the physical character of the country, 
the general distribution of the geological formations, and the facilities for 
travel in the several districts. Tiie route examined was one of those which 
attracted attention in connection with the surveys for the Canadian Pacific, 
extending obliquely across the province through the valleys of the Fraser and 
Thompson to Leather Pass in the Piocky Mountains. Surveys were afterward 
conducted by Richardson on V. I. and the mainland. For description, see 
Id., Mem. Geol. Survey, MS. 

^' Also in cases of controversy between B. C. and any pi^ovince of the do- 
minion which might have passed a similar act, and in suits, actions, or pro- 
ceedings in which the parties in their pleadings raised the question of the 
validity of an act of the Canadian parliament, or of an act of the provincial 
legislature, when, in the opinion of a judge of the court in which they were 
pending, such question was material. 44th Vict., in B. C, Stat., 1881, 17. 

^^For copy of petition, see Jour. Legist., Brit. Col., 1881, 50-2; Papers reU 
Mission De Cosmos, 3-5. 



TROVIXCIAL REVENUE. 677 

of the proposed petition to her Majesty, that the 
province be permitted to regulate and collect its own 
tariff of customs and excise, until throujih communi- 
cation by railway be established through British Co- 
lumbia with the eastern provinces, the committee of 
the privy council desire to observe that this request 
involves a breach of the terms of union, and the vir- 
tual severance of British Columbia from the domin- 
ion.""^ De Cosmos pleaded in London, in 1881, the 
case of the provincial legislature, and was politely 
heard, though doubtless her Majesty's government 
was now somewhat weary of the matter. Said the 
earl of Kimberlcy to the marquis of Lome, in a de- 
spatch dated August 25, 1881: "The request of the 
legislative assembly of British Columbia for permission 
to regulate and collect its own tariff is, in my opin- 
ion, inadmissible." ''Far be the day," remarked Duf- 
ferin, in his speech at Victoria, ''when on any acre of 
soil above which floats the flao: of Ensrland, mere ma- 
terial power, brute political preponderance" — what- 
ever that may be — "should be permitted to decide 
such a controversy as that which we are discussing. 
A governor-general is a federalist by profession, and 
3-0U might as well expect the sultan of Turkc}^ to 
throw up his cap for the commune as the viceroy of 
Canada to entertain a suggestion for the disintegration 
of the dominion." 

Meanwhile work had been progressing, though 
somewhat slowly, on the Canadian Pacific. Early in 
1880, 2G4 miles of the eastern section, commenced in 
1874, were in operation, and up to the 1st of July, 1880, 

■^ On the other hand, it was claimed in the petition that, under the terms 
of the treaty. B. C. Avas allowed to retain its own tariff until the C. V. sliould 
be completed, but, 'believing in tlie good faith of the dominion, and being 
desirous of promoting coufctleration in its true sense,' surrendered its tariff 
in 1S72. It would seem that the dominion government was in the right. 
The clause to which reference is made reads: 'It is agreed that the existing 
customs tariff and excise duties shall continue in force in B. C. until the rail- 
way from the Pacific coast and the system of railways in Canada are con- 
nected, unless the legislature of B. C. should sooner decide to accept the tariflf 
and excise laws of Canada.' 



678 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC u.-uLWAY. 

about $16,500,000 had been expciided on surveys and 
construction.^* In June of this year it was also an- 
nounced by Sir John A.. Macdonald that negotiations 
had been concluded in London whereby the completion 
of the road was to be undertaken by a syndicate 
composed of capitalists in New York, St Paul, Lon- 
don, and Paris. ^^ 

According to the terms of the contract, the por- 
tions of the line not yet constructed were to be 
divided into three sections: the first or eastern sec- 
tion extending from Callander station, near Lake 
Nipissing, to a point of junction with the Lake Su- 
perior section, then being built by the government; 
the second or central section from Selkirk, on Ped 
River, to Kamloop; and the third or western section 
from Kamloop to Port Moody. The syndicate agreed 
to construct by the 1st of May, 1891, and keep in 
running order, a line of uniform gauge,^® and pay to 
the dominion the cost, accordinsf to an outstandinsf 
contract of one hundred miles of road westward iVom 
the town of Winnipeg, a few miles south of Selkirk. 
The dominion agreed to complete the portion of the 
western section between Yale and Kamloop by the 
end of June 1885, between Yale and Port Moody by 
the 1st of June, 1891, and the Lake Superior section 
according to the contract. The road was to be the 
property of the syndicate; but until the eastern and 
central sections were finished, the Canadian govern- 
ment reserved the privilege of working those already 
constructed. On the completion of the former sec- 
tions, the dominion agreed to convey to the syndicate 
the portions of the line then constructed, or to be 
constructed by the government, and meanwhile to 

^* In Papers rel. 3Jission De Cosmos, 59-62, are tables showing approximately 
the sums voted and actually expended for each year between 1S71 and 1SS2. 
The total amount voted under all heads up to the latter year was $J:0,097,- 
812.48. 

■''■^ John S. Kennedy of New York, Richard B. Angus and James J. Hill of 
St Paul, Morton, Rose, & Co. of London, and John Reinach & Co. of Paris. 
Chittenden's B. C. andAlasha, 32. 

*^ Pour feet eight and a half inches. 



THE CONTRACT RATIFIED. C79 

grant to them subsidies of $25,000,000 and 25,000,000 
acres of land,"^ both of which, as we shall sec later, 
were afterward largely increased. As soon as any 
])art of the road, not less than twenty miles in length, 
was in operation, the government would transfer to 
the syndicate their pro rata of cash and land, and 
agreed to admit free of duty all material needed f )r 
the construction of railway bridges, and of a telegraph 
line in connection with the road. For twenty years 
from the date of the contract the government also 
agreed that it would not authorize the building of 
any line near the Canadian Pacific unless it ran in a 
south-westerly direction, nor of any that ran to within 
fifteen miles of the international boundary. The en- 
tire railway and its equipments were to be forever 
exempt from taxation, and the land, unless previously 
sold, w^as to remain untaxed for twenty years. 

On the motion to ratify this contract arose one 
of the warmest discussions ever witnessed in the 
dominion parliament. The ceaseless friction which 
had occurred, hovv-ever, while the government w^as in 
charge of the work, and the fact that there was no 
prospect of its completion within the stipulated time 
unless some radical changes were made in the method 
of prosecuting the enterprise, were strong arguments 
in its favor. Moreover the ministry stated that 
under its provisions the line would be finished for 
some $22,000,000 less than if completed by the gov- 
ernment. The measure was finall}^ carried by an 
overwhelming majority,"^ and immediately afterward 
the syndicate entered upon the execution of its con- 
tract, the work being thenceforth prosecuted with 
energy. 

AccordiuGf to a measurement in 1882 of the various 



" For the central section 810,000 a mile for the first 900 miles, and for tlio 
remaining i'tO at tlie rate of S13,.'533 per mile; and for the eastern section of 
G40 miles, $13,384.01. The land-grant was for the central section, l-2,i3CO 
acres for eacli of the first 900 miles, and 10,000.07 acres per mile for the re- 
mainder. For the eastern section the grant was §9,013.3.3 per mile. 

^'^The vote was 140 to 43. S. F. Buikiai, Nov. 13, ISSo. 



680 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC EAILWAY. 

sections as finally located, the entire length of line 
from Callander to Fort William, on Thunder Bay, at 
the head of Lake Superior, thence to Winnipeg, and 
from that point to Savona's ferry, at the foot of 
Kamloop Lake, crossing the Rocky Mountains by 
way of Kicking Horse Pass, and from Savona's ferry 
to Port Moody, was 2,557 miles. To this must be 
added the sections between Callander and Ottawa, a 
distance of 228 miles, and from Ottawa to Montreal, 
119 miles, making a total of 2,904 miles as the grand 
trunk road of the Canadian Pacific, though it may be 
presumed that the entire line from Halifax to Port 
Moody will eventually be under the control of a 
single company. ^^ 

Of the sections between Callander and Kamloop 
Lake no further mention is required in these pages; 
but of the one between Savona's ferry and Port 
Moody, h'ing as it does entirely within British 
Columbia, a description may not be without interest 
to the reader. The length of this portion of the line 
was 213.5 miles, and it was divided into five subsections, 
from Port Moody to Emory's Bar, a distance of 85.5 
miles, from Emory's Bar to Boston Bar 29 miles, 
irom Boston Bar to Lytton 29.5 miles, from Lytton 
to Junction Flat 29 miles, and from Junction Flat to 
Savona's ferry 40.5 miles.^'' The contracts for all 
these subdivisions, of which the first was awarded 
early in 1879 and the remainder in the winter of 1882, 
full into the hands of A. Onderdonk, an engineer and 
contractor of good repute, and one wdio represented 
several prominent capitalists in California, Oregon, and 
New York.^^ Their amount, including the cost of 
a bridge across the Eraser at Cisco Flat, was about 
$11,900,000,^^ apart from the expense of the rails 

"' From Callander to Fort William 650 miles, from Port Arthur to Winnipeg 
l.'jo miles, from Winnipeg to Savona's feiTy 1,250 miles, and from Savona's 
ferry to Port Moody 215 miles. 

-■'^Sess. Papn-^, D. C, ISSl, 293; B. C. Directory, 1S82 3, 373. 

»>D. 0. Mills of Cal., S. G. Reid of Or,, and II. 15. Laidlaw and L. P. 
Morton of N. Y. Se.'ss. Papers, B. C, ISSl, 235. 

^^For the subsection between Emory Bar and Boston Bar $2,727,300, 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROAD. 



681 



and fastenings, which for all but the first subsection 
were furnished by the dominion. 

Early in 1880 ground was broken; and from that 
date work was continued almost without interrup- 
tion until the line was completed. On portions of 
the road, and especially between Emory and Boston 
bars, it is probable that the difficulties were greater 




Canadian Pacific. 



between Boston Bar and Lytton $2,573,G40, between Lytton and Junetion 
Flat §2,056,950, and between Junction Flat and Sa vena's ferry §1,809,150, or 
an average of nearly $43,000 per mile. The first was to bo liuished by Dec. 
1, 1SS3, the second by June 30, 1SS4, the third by December 31, 1SS4, and 
the fourth not later than June 30, 1885. It appears that contracts were origi- 
nally made with other parties, but, remarks Walkem, in tho report of his 
negotiations at Ottawa with the dominion government, 'the manliest advan- 
tages of dealing with one firm of unquestionable means and ability, instead of 
with three or four firms, in the construction of the work, uiflucnced the govern- 
ment, as I learned, to consent to tho transfer of the contracts mentioned.* 
For the portion between I'ort Moody and Emory Bar the contract vas 
$2,487,000, or an average of S:{0,000 per mile, and the estimated cost of the 
bridge across the Fraser was §250,000. B. C. Directory, 1882-3, 373-4. 



682 TBE CAXADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAi. 

than had hitherto been encountered in railroad build- 
ing, except perhaps in Switzerland and Peru, the aver- 
age cost per mile being $80,000, and of some miles as 
much as $200,000. Other lines, difficult of con- 
struction, as the Central and Union Pacific, passed 
around and over the mountains b}^ gradual ascents; 
but on the Cascade Pange no practicable gradients 
could be found, and it was necessary to run tli rough 
it, on a line almost parallel with the canun o{ the 
Fraser. For almost the entire distance betv/een 
Yale and Lytton the river has cut ioy way through 
this range, plunging in foaming catara ;ts through deep 
lateral gorges, flanked in places by spurs of perpen- 
dicular rock. Along nineteen mil: s of the route thir- 
teen tunnels were bored, one series of four being within 
a mile of Yale, and another of six occurring some 
2,500 yards farther in the direction of Boston Bar. 
Elsewhere the roadway was literally hewn out of 
rock, the crevices being filled with masonrj^, and 
the ravines and rivers spanned by truss and trestle 
bridges, of which there are many between Savona's 
ferry and the sea, among them being a three-spanned 
iron and steel truss-bridge crossing the Fraser below 
Lytton.^' 

The road-bed throughout the entire section was 
substantially built, the cuttings and tunnels being 
twenty-two feet, the embankments seventeen feet in 
width, and the track laid wdth sixt3^-pound steel rails, 
and heavily ballasted. To perform this gigantic task, 
an army of laborers and mechanics was employed, 
mustering at times more than 7,000 men, and with the 
aid of the best modern machinery. They were fairlj^ 
paid,^* and humanelj^ treated; and it is worthy of note, 

^' The total length of the bridge is 530 ft, and of the central sjian 315 ft, 
the ends of the latter lesting on piers of solid masonry 96 ft higli. The 
superstructure contains G,000 tons of iron and steel. Tlie total cost was §280, - 
000. Portland West Shore, Dec. 1SS5, 360. 

^'According to a schedule of wages issued at Yale, March 1, 1SS3, laborers 
i-eceivcd 8'-73 to §2 a day; hewers, §3.50; choppers, $2 to $2.50; drillers, §2 
to §2.25; blacksmiths, §3 to .$3.50; masous, §2.50 to §3.50: stone-cutters, §3 
to §3.50; carpentei's, §3 to §3.50; foremen, §2.50 to §4. These rates were for 



A GnAXD ACIIIEVEMEXT. 683 

that althong-h some of the work was of an extremely 
hazardous nature, men being often lowered hundreds 
of feet down almost perpendicular rocks, in order to 
blast a foothold on the mountain side, only thirty -two 
fatal accidents occurred between April 1880 and No- 
vember 1882, though the average number employed 
during that period exceeded 4,000. Supplies were 
ibrwardcd on pack-animals, over trails never before 
deemed practicable except by Indians, and by them 
only with the aid of ladders. Building materials were 
landed at enormous cost, the toll of ten dollars per 
ton on all freight passing over the Yale and Cariboo 
road being strictly enforced. As the work advanced, 
transportation became each 3'ear more costly, until it 
was resolved to attempt the passage of the Eraser 
canon to the navigable water above, in order to supply 
the more distant camps, the steamer Shuzzij being 
built for the purpose. But who could be found daring 
enough to steer this boat up the swift-running river 
and through the frightful canon, where the pent waters 
rushed down in foaming fury? One captain after 
another, looking at the tiny craft and at the Scylla 
and Charybdis beyond, declared the feat imi30ssible. 
At length two brothers, Smith by name, well known 
for their daring exploits on the upper Columbia,"^ 
consented to undertake the task. With a steam-winch 
and capstan, and several large hawsers, they set forth 
on their voyage with a crew of seventeen men, the 
steamer being in charge of a skilled engineer, J. W. 
Burse. The severest struggle was at a point called 
China Biffle, where the power of the engines and 
steam-winch, with fifteen men at the capstan, and of 
150 Chinamen laying hold of one of the ropes, barelj' 

teu hours' work and for white labor. Boarding-houses were provided at con- 
venient distances, where the rate Avas 84 per week, though none were required 
to patronize them. />. C. luj'orm. for Emirjr., 15; B. C. Directory, lSS2-;{, 370. 
"•'S. R. Smith ran the steamer <9/io*7j07U' down the Snake lliver for a dis- 
tance of 1,000 miles, a portion of the route being through the rajiids near the 
base of the Blue Mountains. Up to 1SS3 this was the only boat that had ever 
attempted this perilous passage. He also carried a steamer safely over the 
Willamette Falls, near Oregon City. ChiUeudeu'd Brit. Col. and Alaska, 36. 



684 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

sufficed to pull the vessel over the shoals. Over- 
coming this difficulty, and passing safely through Hell- 
gate and Black Canon, where the stream runs at the 
rate of some twenty miles an hour, the Skuzzy started 
with her first load of freight from Boston Bar. 

Along the entire route between Port Moody and 
Savona's ferry, and apart from tunnel-boring, some 
10,600,000 cubic j^ards of earth and rock were re- 
moved by pick, powder, and nitro-glycerine. On the 
line between Emory and Yale were complete works 
for the manufacture of explosives, with a capacity of 
about 2,000 pounds per day,^^ and at Yale were con- 
struction and repair shops, supplied with all the ma- 
chinery needed for the building of cars and engines, 
and for general work. 

Port Moody is distant seventy-five miles from Vic- 
toria and overland from New Westminster about five 
miles. ^^ That it is a safe and commodious harbor is 
proved by the fact that within fourteen years after 
the first saw-mill was built, in 1864, six hundred ves- 
sels of larofe tonnaofe, and countless smaller craft, loaded 
at and left it, not one of which was injured.^^ In 1882 

"" The cartridge cases for giant-powder were made of paper dipped in hot 
paraffine and wax, 5-S to 1 inch in diameter, and weighed, when tilled, about 
5-12 of a pound. 

^'In section 2 of a report of the privy council of Canada, dated May 19, 
1881, the reasons for the change of terminus are thus given: 'On the Gth of 
June, 1873, in view of the then probability of the railway running by Bute 
Inlet, an order in council was passed declaring that Esquimalt should he the 
terminus of tlie railway on the Pacific coast, but the alignment on the main- 
land was at that time wholly undetermined. In May 1878, the government, 
on increased information, determined, however, to select Burrard Inlet as the 
objective point on the Pacific coast to be reached by the railway; and they 
cancelled the order i-elating to Esquimalt. Still further examinations were, 
however, deemed necessary, particularly with reference to the advantages of 
a still more northern route which should terminate at Port Simpson; and to 
keep the \vhole question entirely free until additional exploratory surveys 
should be made, the order in council of June 1873 was in April 1879 re- 
vived, and continued in force until October 1879, when the selection of Bur- 
rard Inlet was finally made. ' Painrs rel. Mission De Cosmos, 1 5. 

^* Letter of Capt. Jas Cooper to the gov. -gen., in F/emin<fs Rept. Can. Pac. 
Railway, 1877, 30G. See also Brit. Colonist, in Can. Pac. Railway Routes, 4. 
Admiral Richards, hydrographer to the admiralty in 1882, describes Port 
iloody as a snug harbor, and capacious for shipping beyond all probable re- 
quirements. 



CHOICE OF TERMINUS. C85 

a substantial wharf had already been constructed 1,370 
feet in length, and with a breadth, for GOO feet from 
its centre, of 150 feet. It was supported by more 
than 1,700 piles, from twelve to twenty inches in 
diameter, strongly capped and braced, the front and 
sides of the structure presenting a solid wall of four- 
teen-inch timber, and the surface being covered wdth 
four-inch planks, fastened wdth eight-inch spikes. 
On this structure, freight and passenger stations, 
offices, work-shops, warehouses, and other buildings 
needed for traffic were completed; and here ships 
could unload in a depth of water never less than four 
and a half fathoms at low tide. 

Nevertheless it cannot be disputed that Port Moody 
was selected, not as the best terminus, but probably 
because, as the privy council of Canada remarked in 
its report touching the latest petition of the provincial 
legislature, "it rendered unnecessary the line between 
Nanaimo and Esquimalt as a condition of the union 
with British Columbia."^^ In his official report to 
the premier, dated April 26, 1878 — some eighteen 
months before the selection of the terminus — the en- 
gineer-in-chief stated expressly that Burrard Inlet 
was less eligible than Esquimalt. Navigation to the 
former point from the ocean was more or less intri- 
cate; nor could it be reached at all by vessels of large 
tonnage without passing within cannon-shot of a group 
of islands belonging to a foreign power. As to the 
Bute Inlet route, supposing even the wide channels 
of the Valdes Islands bridged at an enormous cost — 
one which it was almost impossible to estimate — and 
the road extended to Esquimalt, the travel thence by 
rail to Bute Inlet would be at least 150 miles farther 
than direct by steamer to Burrard Inlet, while to 
substitute a ferry for the bridging between the former 
inlet and the mainland would entail a very consider- 
able and unnecessary expenditure. From the crossing 

"'Papers rel. Mission De Cosmos, 15. 



686 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

of Lake Manitoba, about midway on the continent, 
to Burrard Inlet, the distance was more than eleven 
hundred miles, and to Esquimalt more than fourteen 
hundred. In this entire region there were not more 
than 12,000 white inhabitants.^" It was difficult, in 
his opinion, "to recognize any commercial advantage 
in carrying the line to Esquimalt at this period in the 
history of Canada to compensate for these grave objec- 
tions : " and after considerino^ the eno;ineerino; features 
of each route, and weighing carefully the commercial 
considerations,^^ he was forced to the conclusion that, 
if a decision could not be further postponed, some 
point on Burrard Inlet should be selected as the ter- 



^''Tlie actual figures were probably nearer 20,000. 

^' What the chief engineer had to do with commercial considerations he 
does not explain. 

^'^ Flemhifjs Reft. Can. Pac. Railway, 1878, 12-14. The chief engineer, 
in the correspondence, queries, and nautical evidence respecting harbors and 
waters in B. C, 283, says: 'The railway lines which have been projected 
across the Rocky Mountain zone touch the navigable waters of the Pacific at 
the following inlets: 1. Burrard Inlet; 2. Howe Sound; 3. Bute Inlet; 4. 
Bentick Arm, North; 5. Dean Inlet; 6. Gardner Inlet; 7. Skeena River.' In 
reply to questions propounded by Fleming to naval ofBcers in high command, 
as to the selection of a terminus, there was little difference of opinion. In 
answer to the question, ' Could large sea-going ships approaching by the mid- 
dle channel pass without danger or difficulty through by Johnston Strait to 
Burrard Inlet, Howe Sound, or Waddington Harbor (near the head of Bute 
Inlet)?' Admiral Cochrane answered, 'No;' Admiral Richards: 'The ap- 
proach would always be attended with some danger; ' Admiral Farquhar, 
that he understood from officers under his orders that the navigation was 
' intricate and difficult for large vessels (even steamers), and impracticable 
for ocean sailing vessels.' In answer to the request, ' Having regard to naval 
and commercial considerations, mention the point on the coast which appears 
to you the most suitable for the railway terminus,' Cochrane answered: 'I am 
of belief that the most advantageous site for the terminus is, as before stated, 
tliat of Burrard Inlet; Richards: 'From a nautical point of view, Burrard 
Inlet is every way preferaljle; ' Commander Pender: 'Burrard Inlet is, in my 
opinion, preferable to either of the other places named.' Carnarvon's de- 
spatch to Earl Dufferin, in Id., 1877, 278 et seq. 

To Dean Inlet a line was instrumentally surveyed, and a very favorable 
route was found, but it had high gradients for some distance from the sea. 
While neither the harbor nor the sea approach to it proved as good as was ex- 
pected, the route and terminus at Dean Inlet were found in every respect su- 
perior to Bute Inlet. To Bute Inlet the railway was, besides, fifty miles 
longer, even to the head of the inlet; and it was quite clear that it would 
have to be built on to Frederic Arm, at the north side of the moutli of the 
inlet. Furthermore, the navigation, either north to Queen Charlotte Sound 
or south toward Fuca Straits, presented serious difficulties. So well aware 
were the Bute-Inlet-or-nothing party of the dilBculties here mentioned, that 
the inlet as a terminal harbor, or as of any permanent importance to tlie rail- 
way, was thrown out of the calculation (says Mackenzie); and the terminal 



COMPLETION OF THE ROAD. 087 

Early in November 1885 the Canadian Pacific rail- 
way was completed from ^Montreal to Port Moody, 
the last rail being laid at Eagle Pass/^ some twenty 
miles from the second crossing of the Columbia.** 
The work was finished more than five years before 
the date required in the Carnarvon terms, as much as 
four miles of road having been built on some sections 
in a day, and twenty-two miles in a week. The cost 
of the undertaking far exceeded the early estimates, 
some of which were placed as low as $00,000,000, 
while the actual outlay was probably more than double 
that sum, most of the amount expended being drawn 
from Europe. In London and Paris the syndicate 
raised nearly all its funds, mortgaging for this purpose 
its enormous land grant, besides selling at fair prices 
considerable portions of the most fertile tracts. 

That the Canadian Pacific would, in the near future, 
pay dividends on the original outlay was not expected. 
The main purpose was to establish overland commu- 
nication within British America, and to open up for 
settlement the vast, uninhabited, and roadless wilds of 
interior Canada. In the work of exploration alone 
more than 50,000 miles were surveyed, of which at 
least 15,000 were carefully measured, at an expense 
of some $4,000,000, by chain and spirit-level, through 

difficulty was avoided l)y proposing to continue the railway 250 or 300 miles 
farther than to the head of Dean or Burrard Inlet, and to make the terminus 
at Esciuimalt, on Vancouver Island. 

^^So named by Engineer Walker Moberly, who in 18G5 was ordered to 
search out a pass for a wagon route through Gold Mountains. He had well- 
nigh abandoned his task as hopeless, when one day be observed an eagle tlying 
up one of the narrow valleys near Lake Shuswap, and following tlie direction 
of its tlight, discovered the pass. Portland West Shore, Dec. 18S5, 3G0. 

**0n this occasion a train, consisting of the official car, a sleeper, and bag- 
gage-car, arrived from Winnipeg, making the distance of 1,0'2'2 miles to the 
first crossing of the Columbia in 3'2i hours, and stopping a short distance from 
the end of the track. The honor of driving the last spike was gi-anted to D. 
Smith, Major Rogers, a civil engineer in the company's employ, holding the 
tie. The ceremony was not a very demonstrative one, not more than 150 
persons being present. As the last blow was struck, cheers were given ior 
the success of tlie enterprise, and Manager Van Home, being requested to 
make a few remarks on the occasion, merely replied, 'AH that I have got to 
say is, that the work was well done in every way. ' Van Homo had been con- 
nected with the line since 1871, when there were but 15 miles conotructed. 
S. F. AUa, Nov. 'J, 1885. 



688 THE CANADIAl^ PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

mountain, forest, and prairie. The coast of British 
Columbia, with its countless fiords, flanked by moun- 
tains reaching far above the limit of perpetual snow, 
was repeatedly explored in the search for a suitable 
terminus. The northern portion of the province was 
mapped, at least as far north as Port Simpson, by men 
who, after laboring in vain amidst extreme peril and 
hardship, were compelled to abandon it once more to 
its primeval solitude. 

In the interior of British Columbia are still vast 
districts as yet almost untrodden by the foot of civi- 
lized man, though forming little more than a speck 
when compared with the deserts of the dominion. 
The entire area of Canada is but little smaller than 
that of Europe; and excluding from each, as almost 
worthless, the portion within the Arctic circle, it will 
be found that the surface of the former is equal to 
that of all the empires, kingdoms, principalities, and 
republics between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. 
Covering the broadest and not the least fertile portion 
of the continent, with an almost endless extent of 
vacant land, an invigorating climate, and unlimited 
resources; with valuable fisheries in the lakes and 
rivers, and around the coasts; with boundless forests 
within reach of navigable w^ater; with immense de- 
posits of coal and iron, gold and silver, copper and 
lead, on the seaboards and in the interior; — with all 
these elements of wealth, the question was, how to de- 
velop a region thus lavishly provided. This railway 
is the answer. 

But the railway was projected also as a portion of a 
great national highway, extending from Great Britain 
to the Indies, and to many portions of the British 
empire. Esquimalt, the naval station, and probably 
destined to be the arsenal of the province, was from 
Liverpool at least a three months' voyage by steamer, 
while via Halifax and by rail it could be reached in a 
fortnight. By the construction of this line, the Aus- 
tralian colonies, New Zealand, and ever}^ portion of 



COMPARISONS. 689 

England's possessions, both in the North and South 
Pacific, would be more or less benefited; while to Can- 
ada herself, ranking already among the great maritime 
powers of the world, with a shipping trade greater 
than that of Germany, and at least twice that of 
Spain or Russia, a transcontinental railway under her 
own control was an advantage worth any reasonable 
outlay. 

Whether the building of the Canadian Pacific 
railway was a somewhat premature enterprise, and 
whether the line could have been built at smaller cost 
to the dominion, are questions which I shall not dis- 
cuss. With the overland roads between San Fran- 
cisco and New York, or between San Francisco and 
New Orleans, no fair comparison can be made, not 
only on account of the disparity of population, but 
because the latter were mainly commercial enterprises. 
Perhaps the nearest counterpart may be found in the 
Australian railroads, and especially in the one between 
Sydney and Melbourne, many of these lines being the 
property of the government, and most of them oper- 
ated at a small profit, on an average probably some 
two or three per cent. In the Australian colonics, as 
in the dominion, a large extent of diflficult but worth- 
less and unoccupied country was traversed, though 
the obstacles encountered in the former were by com- 
parison of little moment. 

In 1873, Canada, with a population somewhat under 
four millions, a trade of about $218,000,000, a debt 
of at least $100,000,000, and a rate of taxation equal 
to $4.58 per capita, contained 2,639 miles of railroad; 
while in AustraUa, with less than two millions of peo- 
ple, a trade of $360,000,000, a debt of $32,000,000, 
and an income derived from taxes and land sales of 
$5.35 per capita, there were at the same date some 
1,500 miles in operation. The volume of trade in 
either instance includes only exports and imports, and 
the difference in its ratio to population may be partly 

Hist. BniT. Cor.. 44 



690 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

explained by the paucity of manufactures in the Aus- 
tralian colonies, their most valuable products being 
shipped to England. Apart from this consideration, 
it will be seen that in relation to the revenue, debt, 
and population of the two countries, there was no great 
disproportion in the extent of their railroads, and 
twelve years later the disproportion had certainly not 
been altered in favor of Canada. It would appear, 
however, that, in the construction of the Canadian 
Pacific, the dominion added to her burdens all that 
she could bear, and that the completion of the task 
according to the strict letter of the terms of union 
would have driven her to the verge of bankruptcy. 

Nevertheless, it is not improbable that if the mem- 
bers of the provincial legislature had been less persist- 
ent in their demands ; if they had acted in the matter 
not merely as colonists, but as representatives of an 
integral portion of the dominion and of the British 
empire; if they had accepted the spirit as well as the 
letter of the Carnarvon terms, whereby the comple- 
tion of the road was to be deferred until the close of 
1890, not insisting on the immediate fulfilment of the 
contract at v/hatever cost — Esquimalt would have been 
finally selected as the terminus. None knew better 
than did the citizens of Victoria that the senate of 
the dominion was not bound to ratify an agreement 
proposed by the ministry ,^^ and the rejection of the 
Esquimalt and Nanaimo bill by the upper house of 
Canada was no fair pretext for an overt threat of 
secession. The warning uttered by Dufferin was not 
in vain. The line of the Canadian Pacific has been 
deflected toward the south. Burrard Inlet already 
contains a small but thriving commercial port, and 
the capital of the province has thus far reaped but 
little benefit from the transcontinental line of British 
America. 

*'" The action taken by the senate was indorsed by the imperial govern- 
mpnt. See Stat. Brit. Col., 1882, 75. 



NEW RAILWAYS. 091 

]Meanwhile new lines of road have been projected 
in several portions of the province. In April 1882 
an act was ]iassed incorporating the New Westminster 
and Port Moody Railway Company, with a capital 
stock of $200,000.*'' In May 1883 the New West- 
minster Southern was incorporated by statute, with a 
capital of $G00,000.*^ On the same date were also in- 
corporated the Columbia and Kootenai Railway and 
Transportation Company with a capital of $5,000,000, 
and the Fraser River Railway Company with a capi- 
tal of $500,000. By the terms of its contract, the 
former was required to construct, equip, and work a 
continuous line of road from the outlet of Kootenai 
Lake, through the Selkirk Range, to a point on the 
Columbia as near as practicable to its junction with 
Kootenai River, and to build and run a line of 
steamers from that point to the spot on the west bank 
of the former stream where the Canadian Pacific 
strikes it, near Eagle Pass.*^ The route of the latter 
was from a point on the forty-ninth parallel near 
Semiahmoo Ba}'',*" to connect with the Canadian 
Pacific near its western terminus/"^ and thence to New 
Westminster district. 

■■^The original stockholders were Ebenezer Bi'ovvn, James Cunningham, 
Ilobt Dickinson, John Hendry, Wm N. Bole, Loftus R. Mclnncs, and John 
Irving, all of New Westminster. The line was to be commenced within one 
year and to be completed within four years from the passing of the act, 'from 
a point in the city of New Westminster to a point at or near Port Moody, or 
elsewliere on Burrard Inlet, or to a point between Port Moody and Pitt 
River.' Stat. Brit. Col, 1SS4, 65-G. By act of Feb. IS, 18S4, the time for 
commencement was extended to Jan. 1, I88G, and for completion to Jan. 1, 
1888. 

•■' Hugh Nelson, Thos R. Mclnnes, Joshua A. R. Homer, Ebenezer Brown, 
Jos. Hunter, Chas M. Carter, and Gordon E. Corbould were the first share- 
holders. Tlie line of route was a little indefinite — ' from some point near the 
4.!.)th parallel of north latitude between Semiahmoo Bay and Township 16, in 
the district of New Westminster, to the city of New Westminster, and to 
some point on Burrard Islet,' 

^''Also a line of steamers 'from that point on Kootenai River where the 
southern boundary line of British Columbia intersects the said river, thence 
down the said river to Kootenai Lake, and through and throughout said lake 
and its navigable tributaries.' 

*' Between the bay and the eastern line of township 22, New West- 
minster district. 

^'^ Between the terminus and the eastern line of to^vnship 27, New \yest- 
minstcr district. Tlie line was to be commenced within two j-ears and finished 
witliiu five years after the passing of the act. The stockholders were Robt 



692 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

Finally, in August 1883, a contract was made with 
a party of capitalists for the construction of the Es- 
quimalt and Nanaimo railway and telegraph line, witli 
a subsidy of $750,000, the amount to be contributed 
by the dominion government, together with a liberal 
grant of land,^^ the capital stock being $3,000,000. 
The contractors were required to commence work im- 
mediately, and to complete and equip the line on or 
before the 10th of June, 1887, time being declared as 
of the essence of the contract; and in default of such 
completion within the date specified, the contractors 
were to forfeit the subsidy, land grant, and the amount 
to be deposited as security with the receiver-general.^^ 
The road, with its equipments, was to be exempt from 
taxation for ten years after completion, and all the 

W. Deane, Loftus E. Mclnnes, Justus Howison, Jas A. Clark, Henry Elliott, 
Jas A. Laidlaw, Henry V. Edmonds, DonaM Chisbolm, Chas G. Major, Alex. 
Ewen, John A. Webster, John S. McDonald, John Adair, and Sara. Trapp. 
Id. 1883, 103-t. On the 12th of May, 1883, the Victoria Transfer Compauy 
Limited was incorporated, with a capital of $50,000, its main purpose being to 
build and work street-railroads in Victoria and Esquimalt, and their neighbor- 
hood. Acts of incorporation for each company will be found in Stat. B. C. 
for their several years. 

^1 On the eastern side of the island; bounded by straight lines drawn from 
the head of Saanicli Inlet to Muir Creek, on the Fuca Straits; thence west to 
Crown Mountain, and thence north to Seymour Nari'ows, and on the east by 
the coast line to tJie •point of commencement, 'including all coal, coal -oil, ores, 
stones, clay, marble, slate, mines, minerals, and substances whatsoever there- 
upon, therein, and thereunder.' From this tract there was excepted the por- 
tion lying to the northward of a line running east and west half-way between 
the mouth of Courtenay River and Seymour Narrows. For four years, com- 
mencing from Dec. 19, 1883, the entire grant, excepting of coui'se the mineral 
lands, was to be open for agricultural settlement at the rate of $1 per acre, 
the government issuing preemption records for 160 acres to actual settlers. 
See 'Act relating to the Island Railway, the Graving Dock, and Railway 
Lands of the Province' (approved Dec. 19, 1883), in Stat. B. C, 1884, 62, 
64, 67. In the same statute it was enacted that the dominion government 
should take over and complete, and operate as a dommion work, the dry-dock 
at Esquimalt, being entitled to the lands, approaches, and plants belonging 
to it, and the appropriation of the imperial government, paying to the prov- 
ince the amount expended or remaining due for work and material, and a 
further sum of $250,000. In order finally to settle all disputes with the do- 
minion, it was also enacted that 3,500,000 acres, in the portion of tlie Peace 
River district lying east of the Rocky Mountains and adjoining the north- 
west territory of Canada, should be transferred in one rectangular block, to 
be located by the dominion. For coxTCspondence, reports, etc., relating to 
these disputes and their settlement, see Sess. Papers, B. C, 1884, 157-72, 
187-8, 201-2. 

^'^The sum of $250,000 in cash, on which they were to be paid four per 
cent interest after the fulfilment and acceptance of the contract. 



PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 693 

material used in its construction was to be admitted 
free of duty. The character of the line was to be in 
all respects equal to that of the Canadian Pacific,^^ 
and the company was required to maintain it in run- 
ning order, and to work it "continuously and in good 
faith. "^* It is among the possibilities of the future 
that this line may be extended northward, and that 
the terminus on the mainland be eventually at Bute 
Inlet, and on the island at Esquimalt, the former 
point being connected with Vancouver by suspension 
bridges, or steam-ferries, when traffic shall be suffi- 
ciently developed to justify the outlay.^^ 

^^ With the same gauge, the alignments, gradients, and curvatures being 
the best that the physical features of the country would permit, the grades 
not to exceed 80 feet to the mile. The width of cuttings was to be 20 feet, 
and of embankments IG feet. All bridges, culverts, etc., were to be of ample 
size and strength, equal to the best description of work on the Canadian Pa- 
ciiic. Sufficient rolling stock, and all buildings necessary for the accommoda- 
tion of traffic, were to be furnished by the contractors. 

''*The full text of the contract will be found in Sess. Papers, B. C, 1884, 
183-G. 

^•^ Among the most valuable authorities consulted in this and the preceding 
chapter may be mentioned a Memorandum on the Terms of Union and the Pa- 
cific Hailway, by Alexander Maclcenzie, JIS., wherein I have been supplied 
with a clear, brief, and succinct account of the subject-matters. The mate- 
rial furnished by the former premier of the dominion contains, not a statement 
of his own views, but a statement of the facts, so far as he knew them. It 
M-as fortunate for the dominion that, at this juncture in her history, a man of 
Mackenzie's intuitive caution and foresight had sway for a time over the 
interests of his adopted country, and for several years, as leader of tlie oppo- 
sition, held in check the more ambitious designs of Sir Joim A. Macdonald.^ 

In the Papers in Connection with the Construction of the Canadian Pacific 
Paihcai/. letn.'-'en the Dominion, Imperial, and Provincial Governments, in 
Sessional Papers, B. C, 1S81, 139-310, are copies of all the official corre- 
spondence relating to the Canadian Pacific, between the 1-lth of August, 1SG9, 
and tlie Sth of May, ISSO. On the former date, while yet the question of 
confederation had not assumed definite shape, Earl Granville, in a despatch to 
Governor Musgrave, then recently appointed, says: 'It is evident that the 
establishment of a British line of communication between the Atlantic and 
Pacific oceans is far more feasible by the operations of a single government 
responsible for the progress of both shores of the continent than by the bar- 
gain negotiated between separate, perhaps in some respects rival, governments 
and legislatures.' On the Sth of May, 18S0. the provincial legislature granted 
to the dominion, as we have seen, the lands required in the terms of tlie re- 
vised agreement, the contract with the syndicate having been then probably 
concluded, though not officially announced. In the Correspondence relating 
to the Canadian Pacific Ritilwaij are a few of the more important despatches 
relating to this controversy, though all of them are contained in the Sc.-!sional 
Papers oi 1881. In that "year, A. De Cosmos was ordered by the i)rovinciaI 
legislature to proceed to London in order to support the petition to the im- 
perial government. He appears to have pert'ornied iiis duty faithfully. In a 
despatch to the Marquis of Lome, dated Aug. 25, 1881, acknowledging the 



C94 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

receipt of the petition and of the report of the privy covmcil, the earl of Kim- 
berley writes: 'I have also had the advantage of several interviews with Sir 
J. A. Macdonald and witli Mr De Cosmos, and I will now proceed to com- 
municate to you the conclusions which I have formed on the subject. . .Hav- 
ing regard to the statements and representations which havebeeu made to me 
on the part of the dominion government and of the province respectively, I 
am of opinion that: 1st, the construction of a light line of railway from Na- 
naimo to Escjuimalt; 2d, the extension without delay of the line to Port 
Moody; and 3d, the grant of reasonable compensation in money for the failure 
to complete the work within the tei-m of ten years, as specified in the condi- 
tions of union — would offer a fair basis for a settlement of the whole question. ' 
An account of the emissary's negotiations will be found in the Papers relating 
to the Mission of the Hon. A. De Cosmos. The Opinions of the English Press 
on the British Columbian Railway Question, Victoria, 1S77, and the Canadian 
Pacific Railway Routes, Victoria, 1877, are pamphlets containing extracts 
from the Pall Mall Gazette, Saturday Review, London Standard, and British 
Colonist, the last touching only on the question of the terminus. In The Do- 
minion of Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway, by Wm Wilson, Victoria, 
1874, is an ex parte statement of the case, as it then stood, from the provincial 
standpoint, and one for which the preface is a rather unfortunate selection 
from Dufferin's speech at Simcoe, on the 27th of August, 1874: 'The time has 
come for laying aside sectional differences, and for combining in one grand 
effort to create a nationality that shall know no distinction from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean.' 

Vancouver Island and British Columbia, their History, Resources, and Pros- 
2iects, by Matthew Macfie, P. R. G. S., London, 1865, was, as its author 
claims, the first work, published in Great Britain, containing full and classified 
information on the various topics relating to the colonies of V. I. and 13. C. 
In scope and arrangement, it must be admitted that the book is much to be 
preferred to the one published by D. G. Forbes Macdonald under a similar 
title, although the latter reached a third edition in 18G3. Mr Macfie, who 
resided for five years in Victoria, devotes the first six chapters of his work 
mainly to an account of the topography, geology, geography, history, and 
resources of V. I,, which he terms 'the England of the Pacific,' two of them 
treating mainly of the gold discovery, and of the trade, progress, and condi- 
tion of the capital. Then follow chapters relating to the commerce, the min- 
ing and agiicultural interests, and the fauna and flora of the mainland; con- 
cluding with a description of society and of the Indian tribes, the last chapter 
containing some excellent advice to intending emigrants. 

The following is an additional list of I'eferences to authorities consulted 
in the preceding chapters: Hansard's Pari. Deb., vol. clxxii. 51-61, clxvi. 
2023-4, and clxvii. 645, 1404-5; Confed. Mess., 35-40; Dom. Min. 
Privy Council, Dec. 18, 1884; Sess. Papers, B. C, 1875-85, passim; The 
Geol. Survey, Can. (B. Westminter & Co., N. Y., Dawson Bros, Montreal, 
1880); Papers Proposed Union B. C. and V. I. (London, Eyre & Spottis- 
woode, 186G); the files of the London Times; Ev. Mail; Pall Mall Gazette; 
Sat. Review; Standard; Victoria, Bi;it. Col., Standard, Telegraph; Dom. Pac. 
Herald; Mainlaiul Guardian; Toronto Globe; London (Ont.) Advertiser; 
Good's Brit. Col., MS.; De Cosmos, Government, MS.; Sketches-, B. C, 
MS.; Ben/ley's Vancouver Island, MS., passim; Acts, B. C, 1871, nos 3, 
13. 14, 16, 17, 23; Stat. B. C, 1880, 3U-40; Id., 1881, 17; Id., 1882, 3, 
65-75; Id., 1883, 25-8, 39-45, 95-101, 103-11, 113-15, 149-52; Jour. Legisl. 
Council, 1864, 2, 4-5, 29, 31, 39, 41-4; Id., 1864-5, 1-5, app. iv.-vi.; 'id., 
1866, 1-4, 39-40, app. i.; Id., 1867, 1-6, 61, 64, 71-2, app. xvi.; Id., 1868, 
1-3, 11-12, 25-7, 40-1, app. i.-iii., xvii.-xix.; Id., 1869, 2-5, 44-0, 70-1; Id., 
1870, 2-4, 28-35, 62-3, app. i.-ii.; Id., 1871, 2-6, 14-17, 23, 27, app. 52; 
Jour. Legisl. Ass., 1873-4, v.-viii., 1-3, app. iii. 3-16, vi. 1-8, vii. 1-4, 49-67, 
8-5-90; Id., 1875, vii.-xiii. 1-2, app. 487-541, 585-96, 665-86; Id., 1876, vii.- 
xiii.; Id., 1877, vii.-xi. 3; Id., 1878, vii.-xi. 3, 71-6, 105-6; Id., 1879, xiii.- 
xiv.; Id., 1880, xi.-xvi.; Id., 1881, 3-4, 50-2, app. 04; Id., 1882, ix.-xv. 3, 



AUTHORITIES, 695 

26, 29, 34, 44, 46-8, 50-3; Id., 18S3, 2; Sess. Papers, B. C, 1876, 57-72, 
165-328, 565-92, 637-i6, 673-6, 731-2, 737, 751-7; Id., 1877,359-72, 375-84, 
389, 400, 431, 449-74; Id., 1878, 379-88, 415-16, 549; Id., 1880, 327-59; 
/(/., 1881, 189, 260-1; Id., 1883, 453; Id., 1884, 157, 183, 325; Indian Land 
Question, Brit. Col., 26, 29-36, 38-9, 41-3, 47, 54-7, 64-8, 95-6, 104-0, 154, 
165-6; S. F. Alia, Bulletin, Call, Chronicle, Herald, Post, Times, passim; 
Sacramento Union, Aug. 24, 1855; Oct. 4, 1856; Apr. 25, 1857; June 9, July 
9, 10, Aug. 9, 26, Sept. 2, 6, 1859; Mar. 3, Aug. 29, Sept. 15, Nov. 23, 1860; 
June 21, July 13, 20, 1861; June 1, 1863; Feb. 15, 1884; St JIdena 
Sta7; Aug. 27, ISSO; B. C. Dirvctory, 1882-3, 1884-5, passim; Chittenden's 
Travels in Brit. Col., 31-7; St Helena (Cal.) Star, Aug. 27, 1880; Har- 
per's Mag., Aug. 1882; Portland (Or.) West Shore, Dec. 1885, 359-02; Ev. 
Telegram, Feb. 20, Mar. 22, 29, 1879. 



CHAPTER XXXIV, 

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT. 

1870-1886. 

The Victoria and Esquimalt Railway — Protest of the Mainland 
Population — The Carnarvon Club— Secession or the Carnarvon 
Terms — Defeat of the Elliott Ministry — A Lively Debate — The 
Legislature Votes for Separation — Discontent in the Capital — 
Cornwall Appointed Chief Magistrate — Government of British 
Columbia — The Suffrage— Proceedings of the Legislature- The 
Judiciary. 

In the preceding chapters I have endeavored to lay- 
before the reader the main incidents in relation to the 
Canadian Pacific Railway, avoiding, as far as possible, 
the political issues to which the project gave rise in 
British Columbia, as a matter apart from the disputes 
and negotiations between the province and the do- 
minion. At the first mention of the scheme, in con- 
nection with the terms of union, certain parties in 
Victoria raised the cry of "no terminus, no confed- 
eration;"^ and the question of the Bute Inlet route as 
against Burrard Inlet was discussed and remarkably 
well understood as early as 1870. In December of 
that year a petition was' presented to the governor- 
general, praying that if, after the surveys had been 
completed, it should be found impracticable at once to 
extend the line to Vancouver Island, then a road 
should be constructed between Victoria, Esquimalt, 

^ The Victoria Standard of Oct. 13, 1870, declared that no candidate ought 
to be returned for that city who would not pledge himself to vote for con- 
federation onlv on condition that Victoria or Esquimalt be made the terminus.- 

(696) 



EAILrtOAD POLITICS. 097 

and Nanaimo, on the same conditions as were granted 
to the mainland sections.^ 

When it was announced by the Macdonald ministry 
that Esquimalt had been selected as the terminus, an 
incorporation was organized and chartered by the 
local legislature, early in 1873, under the style of the 
Victoria and Esquimalt Railway Company, the length 
of the proposed line being three and a half miles. ^ In 
July of that j^ear certain members of the government 
proceeded to Esquimalt, and after driving the first 
stake for the location survey of the Canadian Pacific 
at the south-east corner of the dock-yard fence, hoisted 
a flag upon it, and quaffed champagne in honor of the 
occasion. Two days later the location for the termi- 
nus was selected by the same parties, the ceremony 
C(jnsisting of marking one of the posts at the north- 
west corner of the fence enclosing the admiral's resi- 
dence at Thetis Cove with the inscription, C. P. R. 
S., July 19, 1873. Several hundred yards of trail 
were cut through brush, though no sod was turned 
under official authority, Helmcken, who was present 
as the representative of the Allen company in the 
Pacific province, declining to officiate. On the same 
date a telegram was received from Ottawa, stating 
that the commencement of the location survey was 
not in conflict with the terms of union, the limit of 



^Tho petitioners desired to have a clause to this cfifcct embodied in the 
terms of union. In his reply, dated Ottawa, Dec. 31, 1870, Lord Lisgar said 
tliat the route could only be determined after confederation, and after explor- 
ation and survey, in which B. 0. would be duly represented; that the 
interests of the whole dominion, including those of V. I., would then be con- 
sidered; but not until then could the question of a branch road be entertained. 
Brit. Colonist, Jan 11, 1871. 

* The company was empowered by its charter to condemn lands, and was 
required to commence building within a year, and to complete the road within 
two years. In the Consol. Stat., U. C, 1877, G14, the time for commence- 
ment was extended to July 1S7G, and for completion to July 1877. Thus, 
remarked the Colonist of Feb. 2G, 1873, 'there were two great railway com- 
panies—the Canadian Pacific, with a capital of $180,000,000, §10,000,000 paid 
up. anil the Victoria and Esquimalt Railway Company, with §175 paid up;' 
tlie object of the latter being to capture the site of the terminus, and tiia 
principal parties interested being the champious of the 'no terminus, no con- 
federation ' idea. 



698 POLITICS AXD GOVERNMENT. 

time for the commencement of the hne expiring on 
the following day.* 

A year later, after the downfall of Macdonald, 
meetings were held at Yale and New Westminster, 
at which the entire action of the people of Vancouver 
Island on the railroad issue was repudiated, and their 
right denied to speak in the name of British Colum- 
bia. It was also declared that the beginning or com- 
pletion of the island road would in no way affect the 
Canadian Pacific.^ On the defeat of the island rail- 
way bill, however, and the refusal to accept $750,000 
as compensation, the premier of the dominion dealt 
with the provincial administration as with one whose 
interests were entirely identified with the island line, 
which placed that line before the Canadian Pacific, 
and whose tenure of office depended on the persistence 
with which they urged the fulfilment of this portion 
of the Carnarvon terms. Thenceforth, as we have 
seen, the principal bone of contention betw^een the 
two governments was the Esquimalt and Nanaimo 
railroad. 

Early in 187G the attention of the people of Vic- 
toria was called to the fact that E. Brown, president 
of the provincial council, and Forbes George Vernon, 
chief commissioner for lands and works under the 
Elliott administration,^ were in favor of accepting the 
offer of the dominion government.'^ In the summer 
of that year was organized at the capital the Carnar- 

*Brit. Colonist, July 20, 1873. 

^At Lillooet and Spellmans, iu the Lillooet district, meetings were also 
held, at which similar resolutions were adopted. Colonist, July 12, 15, 1S74. 

^ Which succeeded to that of Geoi-ge A. Walkeni in Feb. 1876. A list of 
the members of the legislative council and assembly of V. I. dui'ing the co- 
lonial period, and of the members of the executive council during tiie provin- 
cial period, will be found in the Brit. Col. Direct. 

' Wherefore the ministry was I'oundly abused by a portion of the Victoria 
press. 'Do not trust a premier,' said the Standard, in its issue of Feb. 9, 
1876, 'who says one thing and means another.' To this the government or- 
gan rejoined tliat one would have thought the Walkem administration had 
done enough to injure the country, in linking its fortunes with the conserva- 
tives, to cure its contemporary and the men whom it suj^ported of their pen- 
chant for party politics. B. C. had no interests in common with either of the 
political parties at Ottawa. Brit. Colonist, Feb. 17, 1876. 



CAEXARVOX CLUB DE:iIAXDS. 699 

von club, by the members of which threats of seces- 
sion were openly avowed in default of the execution 
of the Carnarvon terms, the visit of Lord Dufferin 
appearing rather to increase than diminish their 
clamor. 

When, in reply to an address from the citizens of 
Yale deprecating the threat of secession. Governor 
Albert Norton Kichards^ observed that his ministers 
*'did not sympathize with the view that separation 
must follow as a result of the non-commencement of 
the island railway," the Carnarvon club demanded 
an interview w^itli Elliott on business of great public 
importance.^ Giving audience to a deputation from 
the club, the premier was asked: "Did the govern- 
ment indorse the sentiment expressed in the governor's 
reply to the Yale address?" The answer was in the 
negative; the premier observing that the address was 
of a mixed nature, containing ''a little good and a 
great deal of an objectionable character;" whereupon 
the members urged him not merely to repudiate the 
responsibility of what the lieutenant-governor had 
said, but to "make him take back his words or stop 
his supplies." Elliott remarked that the governor 
received his supplies in the form of a stipend from 
Ottawa. The Carnarvon club then asked whether 
the provincial legislature could not reach the matter 
in some other way — by refusing to pay the salary of 
the governor's private secretar}^, or to supply materials 
needed at the gubernatorial residence. For a moment 
the premier was staggered; but he was equal to the 
occasion, and with the versatility of a statesman, re- 
plied that he was hardly prepared for such a question. 
He hoped that before the next session of the house 
the railroad difficulty would be adjusted, and that 
addrctoses and replies would be forgotten. He could 

8 Successor to Trutch, who held office from July 1871 to July 1876, Riph- 
arda being appointed for the ensuing five years. 

•Richards hud said, moreover, to the people of Yale: 'I have no doubt 
but what your views are those entertained by the people of the province at 
large.* 



700 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT. 

not say, however, at a moment's notice what the 
government might or might not do if no satisfactory 
settlement were made.^*^ The deputation then de- 
parted, ftdly satisfied that the interests of the province 
were safe in Mr ElUott's keeping.^^ 

In January 1877 there were observed at Victoria 
evidences of unusual activity among the leaders of the 
two parties. On the convening of the local legislature, 
Elliott was vigorously attacked by Walkem, Beaven,^^ 
and others, for sacrificing the island railway, and aid- 
ing Mackenzie in his repudiation policy." A public 
meeting was held at Victoria on the 3d of March, with 
a view to demand separation or the Edgar-Carnarvon 
compromise terms, the one or the other, and in any 
event the removal of Elliott's non-Carnarvon minis- 
ters. A committee was appointed to wait on the 
premier and ascertain what course he intended to 
pursue with regard to the chief commissioner of lands 
and works, who, it was reported, had declared himself 
opposed to forcing the island railway and the Bute 
Inlet terminus on the dominion government. Another 
mass-meeting w^as held shortly afterward, when reso- 
lutions were adopted demanding the resignation of 
Elliott. In the local parliament Walkem, in discussing 
a motion respecting the Edgar-Carnarvon terms, re- 
marked that the secret of the change in Carnarvon's 
views, as to the island railway, was to be found in the 
influence brought to bear on DufFerin by members of 
the Elliott government; and Vernon did not deny 
having advised the governor-general not to undertake 
the construction of this line. 

The change to which he referred is probably the 

" Toronto Globe, in Brit. Colonist, Dec. 12, 1876. 

^^If we can believe the Ottawa Timea, the Carnarvon club was regarded at 
the capital of the dominion as a dangerous organization, and one with pro- 
American leanings. To this the Standard v<i]}\iedi, in its issue of Nov. 1, 1876: 
' The club is undoubtedly dangerous to Canadian repudiators, but there is no 
fear of pro- American leanings if the railway contract be carried out.' 

1^ Robert Beaven was chief commissioner of lands and works from Dec. 
1772 to Jan. 1876; was appointed minister of finance and agriculture Feb. 
28, 1873, and held the latter office from June 1878 to June 1882. 

^^ Standard, March 2, 5, Feb. 27, 1877. 



THE ELLIOTT MINISTRY. 701 

one mentioned in the earl's despatch to the governor- 
general, dated December 18, 1876, wherein, after 
weighing the considerations on either side, he says: 
"I wish you to inform your advisers and the provin- 
cial government that, while I do not feel myself in a 
position to decline to entertain the representations 
pressed upon me by the province, I am nevertheless 
at this moment unable to pronounce an opinion as to 
the course which should be taken, either with regard 
to the Esquimalt and Nanaimo railway, or with 
regard to the delays which have occurred or may 3^et 
occur in the construction of the main line."^* The 
followers of the government said that Walkcra should 
be ashamed to follow a leader who had not the cour- 
age to show them where the battle was. The min- 
istry must not be allowed to shirk such an important 
question. ^^ 

Elliott's ministry endeavored to control the move- 
ment by giving way to it; but in vain. In March 
1878 Walkem introduced a resolution in the assembly 
declaring that if railway construction were not com- 
menced by May 1879, the legislature would demand 
separation. The Elliott party opposed, pleading that 
it would be better not to press Canada for another 
year. 

In June the Elliott ministry resigned, George A. 
Walkem, whose second term of office lasted for four 
years, being again called to the head of affairs. 
Further action on the resolution was deferred until 
September. Meanwhile the Mackenzie administra- 
tion was attacked by the conservatives at Ottawa on 
the island railway question. On the 23d of March, 

^^Correspondence rel. Can. Pac. Railway, 15-16. 

^•'Mr Mara, a member for the mainland, said, on the 3d of April, 1S77, 
that he had strongly opposed the administration of Walkem, as he had been 
Btruggling hard for surveys down the Fraser Kivcr. If the Esquimalt lino 
and iiute Inlet line had been commenced, it would have been fatal to the 
Fraser River I'oute. There were no lands fit for settlement on the island, and 
the expenditure would be useless. In the interior was a region which must 
be opened up to be in any manner a%-ailable. It was not in the interest of 
the whole province that the Esquimalt and Nanaimo railway should be com- 
menced first, tiuiilun!, April 4, 1877. 



702 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT. 

1876, a question was asked in the senate as to the pur- 
chase of 5,000 tons of steel rails which had been lauded 
at Esquimalt before the line had even been surveyed. 
The answer was, that the Esquimalt and Nanaimo 
project had been indorsed by the commons, and that 
the government was justified in taking advantage of 
a low market for the purchase of rails. The fact, 
however, that in 1878, some three years after the 
railway bill was defeated in the senate, the rails were 
in process of removal to Yale, was regarded by the 
opposition in the provincial legislature as an el(;ction- 
eeringjob. 

On tliis and other points, issue was taken in the 
local parliament, and when Walkem's resolution was 
again brought before the house a lively debate ensued. 
Basil Humphreys, provincial secretary and minister 
of mines, said no one could think that the removal of 
the rails was in good faith, for the purpose of construc- 
tion; and they should scout this last deliberate insult 
of the Canadian government. They were now appeal- 
ing to the imperial government in a manner not re- 
sorted to hitherto, and one which would prove effectual. 
Every argument had been exhausted, and every legiti- 
mate means used, to obtain their just rights, without 
'.success. Mr Beaven said it was evident that Canada 
never intended to build the road. Since confederation, 
the expenditures of the dominion had exceeded the 
revenue by over a million dollars annually. Was it 
reasonable, he asked, for them to expect that a rail- 
way to cost more than a hundred million dollars could 
be built without increasing the rate of taxation? He 
observed that tenders were invited for the construction 
of 125 miles of road from Yale to Kamloop, but this 
he regarded as a mere trick, designed for electioneer- 
ing purposes. Mr Abrams said a government that 
could stoop so low as to cripple, in the way they had 
done, the late Walkem administration, was an enemy 
to the province. 

Dr Ash, who, as provincial secretary under Walkem, 



FINANCIAL ASPECTS. 703 

assisted in obtaining the Edgar-Carnarvon settlement, 
opposed the resolution on the ground that it would 
deprive British Columbia of all claim to the build- 
ing of the road. He recommended a modification, if 
necessary, of the Carnarvon terms. To this Walkem 
replied that the doctor well knew that Edgar's pro- 
posals were unauthorized, and that it requii^ed an order 
in council to sanction them before they could be enter- 
tained. Commissioners were merely channels of com- 
munication; with negotiations they had nothing to do. 
The resolution was adopted by a vote of seventeen to 
nine.^^ 

Between 1871 and 1878 some ten millions of dol- 
lars were expended by the dominion government for 
the surveys and construction of the Canadian Pacific 
railway, of which sum about $1,300,000 was appro- 
priated for surveys in British Columbia; but as yd 
not a single dollar had been expended on construction 
within the province. It was claimed, moreover, that 
during this period the contribution of British Colum- 
bia to the consolidated fund of the dominion exceeded 
its proportion to the liability more than a million, the 
average taxation for 1878 being $0 per capita for the 
province, as against $5.34 for the dominion." It 
would seem that as yet the former had gained noth- 
ing by confederation save the phantom of an unreal- 
ized dream. No wonder that there were not a few, 
and these by no means destitute of intelligence, who, 
after considering the general bearings of the matter, 
came to the conclusion that it would have been better to 
remain an independent colony under the home govern- 
ment than to have united with Canada. ]\Ioreover, as 
I have said, the population of the capital contained a 
large percentage of Americans, always impatient of 
control, and especially of dominion control. It should 
not be ignored, however, that before confederation 
the province was burdened with a debt that hung like 

'^ An account of the debate M'ill be found iu the Slaixlard, Sept. 4, 1S78. 
" Papers ret. Mission De Cosmos, Go. 



704 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT. 

a millstone around its neck, was virtually bankrupt, 
and that men had lost faith in its power of recupera- 
tion. The terms of union relieved the people of their 
most oppressive burdens, enlarged their interests, and 
made them rich, at least in promised greatness. 

Concerning the government and political annals of 
British Columbia, there is but little more worthy of 
record. It may indeed be stated, however, that for 
many years the latter were so intimately connected 
M'ith the affairs of the Canadian Pacific railway, that 
the histor}^ of one is almost the history of the other. 
As in other provinces, the chief magistrate was ap- 
pointed by the governor-general of Canada and held 
office for five years, this position being filled, between 
July 1881 and July 1886, by Clement Francis Corn- 
wall, formerly a member of the Canadian senate.^^ 
Regulations pertaining to customs and excise, trade 
and navigation, the militia, the postal service, and the 
administration of justice, together with such other 
matters as elsewhere in Canada fell under dominion 
control, were for the most part framed by the privy 
council, with the advice and consent of parliament, 
while the province, of course, retained control of its 
local affairs. In that parliament British Columbia 
was represented by three senators and six members of 
the commons, her own legislative assembly consisting 
of twenty-five members, elected by the j)eople from 
thirteen districts^'' for a term of four years, while of 
the executive council there were but three members.^*' 

'^Mr Cornwall, a graduate of Cambridge, and a member of the inner 
temple, is a native of England, and a son of Allan Gardner Cornwall, chap- 
lain in ordinary to the queen. In 1862 he came to B. C, and in partnership 
with his brother engaged in stock-raising in the neighborhood of Ashcroft, 
where in 1S78 was his country seat. GoocVs B. C, MS., 53. Elected senator 
immediately after the confederation, he held that position until his appoint- 
ment as governor. 

''••For the fourth parliament, elected in 1882, there were four members for 
Victoria City, two for Victoria district, one for the city and two for the district 
of New Westminster, tliree for Cariboo, two each for Yale, Esquimalt, Koo- 
tenai, Cowichan, and Lillooet, and one each for Nanaimo, Comox, and Cassiar. 
Their names are given in B. C. Direct., 1882-3, 384. 

"''lu 1S85 tlie members of the council were Wm Smithe, premier and chief 



LEGISLATn'E PROCEEDIXGS. 705 

The cumbersome restrictions on the sufFrao^e cxistinof 
during the first 3'ears of the confederation had now 
been abohshed, registration and twelve months' resi- 
dence being the only qualifications needed for British 
subjects,^^ and vote being by ballot."^ 

The proceedings of the legislature between 1872 
and -1886 related mainly to municipal aflTairs, to public 
improvements/^ to the incorporation of companies, to 
tolls, taxes, and revenue, to the disposition of the 
public lands, of all which matters mention will be made 
later,"* and to the administration of justice, so far as 
the province was not under the control of the dominion. 

In 188G Sir Matthew B. Begbie, appointed chief 
justice, as will be remembered, in 1858,"^ was still at 

commissioner of lands and works; A. E. B. Davie, atty-gen.; and John Rob- 
son, provincial sec. 

^^ According to the terms of the Qualification and Registration of Voters 
act, 1S76, repealing a similar act passed in 1875, the latter repealing a simi- 
lar act of 1874, and this again repealing acts of 1871 and 1872. For text of 
the first one, see Stnt. B. G., 1S7G, 21-G. According to its provisions, the 
franchise was withheld from judges, stipendiary magistrates, and constables, 
except in certain cases provided in the act; also from persons undergoing sen- 
tence for treason, felony, or other infamous offence. The only qualification for 
a member of the legislature was that he should be duly entered on the regis- 
ter of electors, and should have been a resident of the province for at least 
twelve months before the date of his election. 

"According to rules prescribed in Id., 1877, 81-7, the polling-places were 
to be furnished with a number of compartments, in which the electors could 
mark their votes while screened from observation. Each ballot-paper was to 
contain a list of the candidates alphabetically arranged. The elector on re- 
ceiving the ballot-paper must enter one of the comi>artment3 and mark it with 
a cross opposite the name of the candidates for whom he preferred to vote. 
He must then fold it so as to conceal the names of the candidates, the marks 
on its face, and the printed numerals on its back, though displaying the offi- 
cial mark thereon to the presiding officer, and depositing his paper, leave the 
polling station witliout making known to any one for whom he had voted. 
Women were entitled to vote at municipal elections. 

-3 By act of 1872, it was declared lawful for the lieut-gov. to appropriate 
any real estate, streams, watei-courses, etc., which might, in his opinion, bo 
necessary for the use, construction, maintenance, or improvement of any pub- 
lic work, and especial!}' such as he might deem necessary for the construction 
of the dry-dock at Esquimalt. In case the owner refused to sell, tlie ciiief 
commissioner of lands and works might tender what he considered a reason- 
able value, with notice that the matter would be submitted to arbitration, 
and oO days thereafter was authorized to take possession. Coiisol. Slat. B. C. 
(ed. 1877), 705. 

2*Tiie laws enacted by the legislature up to 1877 will be found in /</., 
passim, and after that date in the yearly volumes of the Slat. B. V. For pro- 
ceedings of the legislative assembly, see Jour. Lerjid. Ass. B. C. for each year, 
where will also bo found the governor's speeches. 

*^See p. 422, this vol. 

H18X. Brit. Col. 45 



7D6 POLITICS AXD GOVERNMENT. 

the head of the judiciary, being assisted by foar puisne 
judges.^^ Next in rank were the county court judges, 
many of whom had held office since 1861/^ and for 
each settlement and electoral district were one or 
more justices of the peace, of whom more than 200 
were in office in 1886.^^ Thus the law has been 
brought to every man's door. Of late j^ears it has 
been matter for cono^ratulation that, notwithstandino- 
variety of race and diversity of interests, peace and 
order have been maintained without resorting to any 
unusual expedients. Absolute protection has been 
afforded to all, without regard to creed or nationality, 
and even during the construction of the railroad the 
vast influx of workmen belonging to every nationality 
merely rendered necessary the appointment of a few 
additional constables. ^^ 

^ H. P. P. Crease, J. Hamilton Gray, Joliii F. McCreight, and George A. 
Walkem. At this date there v/ere 25 members of the B. C. bar. 

■''Good's Brit. Vol., MS., 101, says that iu 1878 they were favorably known, 
not only for their experience, but for the skilful and conscientious discharge 
of their duties. 

2j For names, with jurisdiction and address of those in ofSce in 1885, see B. 
C. Direct., 1884-5, 234-7. 

23 For particulars as to the administration of justice between 1856 and 1880, 
see chap, xxiii. , this vol. Among the enactments relating to the j udiciary dur- 
ing the confederation period may be mentioned the County Courts Practitioners 
act, 1873, whereby all persons were entitled to appear in the county courts, 
the courts of stipendiary magistrates, and of justices of the peace, as the advo- 
cates of xmrties to any proceedings in sucli courts, though not qualified prac- 
titioners. C'onsol. Stat. B. C, 1877, 144. By act of 1877, the province was 
divided into county court districts. In 1872 an act was passed to provide 
for the holding of circuit courts in connection with the suprcrie courts. For 
acts relating to legal pi'ofessions, see Id., 691-7; Stat. B. C, 1878, 119-20; 
1882, 57; lc)84, 101-11. By acts of 1870, judicial districts were established 
for the judges of the supreme court, and the practice and procedure of the 
supreme court were amended. In the Local Administration of Justice act, 
1881, provision was made v/hereby proceedings in the supreme court could be 
determined in any of the judicial districts as effectually as in the city of Vic- 
toria. By the Provincial Superior Court act, 1882, tliere was established a 
court of record and of original and appellate jurisdiction, styled Her Majesty's 
Court of Queen's Bench for British Columbia. For act regulating the powers 
of supreme court judges in cases of appeal, see Id., 1885, 13-14. The Assize 
Court act, 1885, appoints the dates for holding courts of assize and nisi j^rius, 
and of oyer and terminer, and general jail-delivery, at Victoria, Nauaimo, 
New Westminster, Yale, Kamloop, Clinton, Lytton, and E-ichlield. For act 
relating to the jurisdiction and procedure of county courts, see Id., 1885, 
17-64; for acts relating to juries and jurors, see Consol. Stat. B. C. (ed. 1877), 
315-16; Stat. B. C, 1883, 47-74; I8S4, 60; 1885, 79. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

JS61-1SSG. 

V^icTORiA— The Ubiquitous Chinaman— Esquimalt — Nanaimo — The Vic- 
toria Coal, Mining, and Land Company — New Westminster— 
Langley— Lytton— Savona's Ferry — Kamloop— Clinton— Barker- 
viLLE — Yale— Indian Missions and Missionaries — Metlakatiila— 
Forts — Indifference of the Provincial Government— Civilization 
OF the Native Tribes — Churches— Charitable Societies— Public 
Schools— Journalism— Libraries. 

''Barely two centuries ago," exclaimed Dr Pick- 
ering, who in 1841 passed through the straits of 
Juan do Fuca on board the exploring ship Vincennes, 
''our New England shores presented only scenes like 
that before me; and what is to be the lapse of the 
third?" At this date an Indian trail and a few Indian 
wigwams alone marked the presence of man amid 
the almost untenanted solitudes where now stand the 
cities of Victoria and New Westminster. In 1861 
the population of Victoria mustered about 3,500 white 
inhabitants, of many nationalities, English and Amer- 
icans predominating. At that date the grades and 
cliques into which society resolves itself in older set- 
tlements did not as yet exist, even the lordly Douglas 
being esteemed no better than his fellow-man. More 
cosmopolitan, perhaps, than were even the San Fran- 
ciscans in the days when bonanza society and the 
board of brokers were unknown, the members of this 
heterogeneous community, gathered from all quarters 
of the earth, placed themselves on a common level, 
and had but a common interest — to better their con- 

(707) 



70S SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

clition, vying with each other onlj' in making tlieir 
hves, and especially their leisure hours, as agreeable 
as possible under their altered condition. Free from 
conventional restraint, dwelling in a spot world-famous 
for the beauty of its scenery, amid magnificent vistas 
of forests and mountains clad w^ith richest verdure, 
and in a climate softer than that of the south of Eng- 
land, there are few among the present citizens of Vic- 
toria who, after enjoying this brief respite from the 
wdiirl and strife of progress and civihzation, do not 
recall with a tinge of sadness those good old times. 

At this date the Hudson's Bay fort, with its log 
buildings and its picket palisade, was crumbling into 
deca3^ There were but four streets,^ and the most 
prominent buildings in the capital were the Hudson's 
Bay store and the bank of Bri^^sh North America. 
Two years later the city had made considerable pro- 
gress, containing, early in 1863, about 6,000 people, 
apart from the migratory population that thronged 
the town during the winter season, and some 1,500 
buildinofs, amono- which were substantial warehouses 
and stores, several commodious hotels, a theatre, a 
hospital, five churches, and five banking-houses. The 
value of real estate was also increasing rapidl}^ front- 
age on good business streets commanding a monthly 
rental of three to seven dollars a foot. In 1867 Vic- 
toria was incorporated, being divided into three wards, 
and the municipal council, which consisted of a mayor 
and seven councillors, having power to make by-laws 
for regulating, among other matters, the traffic of the 
city, and the maintenance, repair, and construction of 
highways, wdiarves, and bridges; to purchase, hold, 
and erect buildings on real estate needed for corporate 
use; to establish markets; to frame measures for the 
prevention of fire,- and the lighting of streets; to 

^ Named Wharf , Yates, Eort, and Johnson. Good's Brit. Col., MS., 1. 

^For the support of an efficient fire department, a tax of ^ of one per cent 
a year was to be levied on the value of all buildings, and the sum of $300 a 
year was to be paid by each fire insurance company, together with a rate not 
exceeding one eighth per cent on the amount of their insurances. In the 



CITY OF VICTORIA. TOO 

regulate the drainage, sewerage, and sanitary condi- 
tion of the city; and to provide for the taking of a 
census.^ 

In 1886 the capital contained at least 12,000 inhab- 
itants,'* and in manufactures and commerce ranked, as 
we shall see later, among the foremost cities of the 
coast. In the excellence of its highways and drives, 
Victoria is almost unsurpassed, well-macadamized 
roads, built during the colonial period, extending for 
miles through dense forests of pine, across stretches 
of green meadow-land, over undulating downs, and 
skirting the pebbly beach along the margin of the bay. 
Contiguous to the city on its south-eastern side, and 
bordering on the straits of Juan de Fuca, is the 
public park, enclosing a spacious tract of great natu- 
ral beaut}^ In its centre stands a mound, named 
Beacon Hill, from which a view is obtained of the 
eastern portion of the straits, the islands clustered in 
the Georgian Gulf, and the rugged, snow-capped sum- 
mit of Mount Baker. Here it was that, during the 
early days of the company's regime, signal-fires were 
'^ lighted each night when the annual supply vessel 
became due, and hence, as she passed Bace Bocks, 
news of her arrival was carried to the miniature settle- 
ment gathered around the walls of the old log fort. 

business part of the town no wooden building was to be erected more than 18 
feet, or one story, hic;li, under a penalty of £300 for each mouth during which 
such building was erected or in course of erection. 

3 The text of the ordinance will be found in the Consol. Slat. B. C. (cd. 
1S77), 7o3-GD. Iq 1862, before the union of the two colonies, an act had 
already been passed for the incorporation of the city of Victoria, for which 
see B. C. and V. I. Direct., 1SG3, 94-108. A list of the mayors and councillors 
from 186-2 to 1882 will be found in B. C. Direct., 1882-3, 85-S. At the latter 
date Noah Shakespeare, a native of Staffordshire, England, filled the position 
of mayor. Arriving at Victoria in 1863, being then in his 24th year, he was 
glad to iiud employment at one of the Nanaimo collieries, and after accumu- 
lating a little money, returned to tiic capital and engaged in business. From 
this small bednning he made his way in life, being elected in 1S78 to the city 
council, and in 1882 a member of the dominion commons, and president of the 
Mechanics' Institute. In politics he was termed a liberal conservative; always 
had the support of the working classes. In 1885 the mayoralty M-as held by 
Robert Paterson Rithet. 

^ This was the estimate of directory compilers. The census of 1881 gives 
the population at 12,000, exclusive of Indians. In the S. F. Bulleliii of March 
12, 1883, it is given at 10,000 to 12,000. 



710 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

Viewed from any of the neighboring eminences, as 
from the hill near government house, from Mount 
Tohnie, from Church hill, or from the head of Pan- 
dora avenue, the city, which was laid out, not in rec- 
tangular blocks, but following the configuration of the 
land, presents a beautiful appearance. Many of the 
private dwellings are embowered in ivy, clematis, 
honeysuckle, or other creeping plants, and surrounded 
with orchards, lawns, luxuriant shrubbery, and neatly 
trimmed gardens. The business portion was quite 
early for the most part built of brick or stone, and, 
though none of the structures were pretentious, not a 
few displayed considerable taste and architectural skill. 
The government buildings, containing the provincial 
oflSces, were situated on a neck of land connected by 
a substantial bridge with James Bay, and in their 
front was a gray granite obelisk, erected by the people 
to the memory of Sir James Douglas. The dominion 
buildings, including the custom-house, post-oflSce, and 
marine hospital, and containing accommodation for the 
federal officers, were well and substantially constructed. 

Like San Francisco, Victoria had its Chinatown, 
occupying a considerable portion of the city, and en- 
croaching rapidly on some of the most valuable prop- 
erties, while its denizens came into active competition 
with the mechanics, operatives, and business men of 
the capital. Apart from the omnipresent laundryman 
and domestic servant, there were, in 1886, Chinese 
contractors, merchants, importers, grocers, dry-goods 
men, dealers in provisions, vegetables, tobacco, cloth- 
ing, tea, fancy goods; there were Chinese druggists, 
doctors, tinsmiths, tailors, barbers, bakers, and restau- 
rateurs; and there were Chinese establishments for 
the manufacture of shirts, clothinsr, and cigars. Dur- 
ing the previous one or two years, acts were passed to 
forbid the immigration of Chinamen,^ to prevent them 

" It was declared unlawful for Chinamen to enter the province, those who 
should afterward make their way into British Columbia being liable to a fine 
of §50, or six months imprisonment. The person who should bring them to 
or in any way assist them to reach B. C. was to forfeit §200 for each China- 



THE ciiiNEsr: question. 711 

from acquiring crown lands,^ and to control the Chinese 
population then in the province. The first of these 
acts failed, however, to receive the approval of the 
dominion government/ and a committee, sent from 
Ottawa to inquire into the matter, reported in favor 
of Chinese immigration;^ whereupon another bill, 
almost identical with the former, was passed by the 
provincial legislature, but was again thrown out by 
the cabinet.^ Thus, on the Chinese question, British 
Columbia was, in relation to the dominion, somewhat 
as the Pacific United States were to the federal gov- 
ernment, little hope being entertained by either that 

man so conveyed or assisted, or in default be imprisoned for a period not ex- 
ceeding six months. Certificates of exemption might be granted to those 
vishmg to leave the province temporarily. Stnt. B. C, 18S4, o-G. 

^In the preamble of this act, the text of which -will be found in Id., 1SS4, 
7-1-, it is stated that the influx of Chinese largely exceeded that of any other 
nationality, threatening soon to outnumber the white population; that tlicy 
would not submit to the laws of the province, evaded the payment of taxes, 
and were generally subversive of the comfort and well-being of the community. 
All Chinamen were made liable to a tax of $10 a year, on the payment of 
which licenses were to be handed to them by oflicials, called Chinese col- 
lectors, appointed for each electoral district. All employers of Chinamen 
were required to demand of them their licenses, and retain them during their 
term of service, producing them for inspection by the collector whenever re- 
quired to do so. The fee for miners' certificates, when issued to Chinamen, 
was increased to §15 a year. Exhumation and the use of opium, except for 
medicinal or surgical purposes, were forbidden, and it was declared unlawful, 
under a penalty not exceeding §50, to let or occupy any room containing less 
than 3S4 cubic feet of space for each occupant, or unless such room contained 
a window that would open, not less than two feet square. 

^ For report of the privy council disallowing the act, and containing a copy 
of the opinion of the minister of justice, see Sess. Papci-'i, B. C, 18S4, 43"J-.">. 
In answer to this, the assembly, at its next session, forwarded an address to 
tlie gov. -gen. in council, extremely regretting that the act had been disal- 
lowed, stating that the disallowance was not caused by its being unconstitu- 
tional, but on the ground of inexpediency, and that they saw no reasons to 
change the carefully considered representations, which from time to time 
had been urged upon the dominion government. Jour. Legist. Ass. B. C, 
1885, 52. This is hardly a fair statement of the case. In his report the min- 
ister of justice expresses much doubt as to the authority of the legislature to 
pass such an act, states that it should not be put in force without due consid- 
eration, and that, under its provisions, time was not allowed for such consid- 
eration. 'A law,' he remarks, 'which prevents tlie people of any country 
from coming into a province cannot be said to be of a local or private nature. 
On the contrary, it is one involving dominion and possibly imperial interests.' 

* A copy of the report will be found in the ,S'. F. Calf, Feb. 23, 1SS5. 

^lu section 95 of the British North America Act, 1SG7, it is provitled that 
the legislature of each province may enact laws regarding immigration, but 
that tlio parliament of Canada may also pass similar laws for all or any of the 

Srovinces, and that the former shall take eflect only so far as they do not con- 
ict with the dominion statutes. 



712 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

any radical change in the law would be made until the 
matter came home more closely to tlie doors of their 
eastern brethren. -^^ 

Though still containing in 1886 a large percentage 
of Americans, and as a community by no means lack- 
ing in enterprise, the citizens of the capital were not 
disposed to imitate the example of the Pacific coast 
metropolis, where presided the genius of unrest, and 
where men had barely time to live their allotted span 
of life. They took life quietly and somewhat easily, 
the merchant walking leisurely to his store at nine or 
ten o'clock, closinsf often at four, after a lons^ interval 
for luncheon ; and to the stranger within his gates, who 
might take him to task for his unbusiness-like habits, 
he would reply that he was sufficiently well-to-do, and 
would probably enjoj^ longer days and certainly better 
digestion than his American cousin. As in other 
colonies, the people of British Columbia were much 
given to holiday-making, picnicking, and junketing. 
Legal holidays were plentiful, ^^ and when tliey oc- 

^^ For order iu council calling the attention of the dominion government 
to the immense influx of Chinese into the province, see <SV.ss. Facers, B. C, 
1883, 3-15-6. At thatdate there were about 12,000 Chiuamenin B. C. , of whom 
more than one half were employed on the C. P. R. For resolution urging 
the provincial government to adopt means for restricting further Chinese 
immigration, for compelling those already in tlie province to comply with 
the revenue and otlier laws, and for inaugurating a liberal scheme of assisted 
white immigration, see Jour. Legis. Ass. B. 6'., 1883, 17. In April 1880 a 
resolution was passed iu the assembly, requesting the dominion government 
to authorize the passing of the Chinese tax act, a copy of which will be found 
in Id., 1880, 21. For petition to the legislature of the Anti-Chinese Asso- 
ciation, see >Se.s'S. Papers, B. C, ISSO, 406; for act to provide for the better 
collection of taxes from Chinese, Stat. B. C, 1878, 129-32; for papers and 
resolutions of assembly relating to Chinese immigration between 1870 and 
1G84, Sess. Papers, B. C, 1884, 229-43. For views of Mr Justice Begbie on 
the Chinese question, see Sac. Record-Union, March 12, 1885; for anti-Chi- 
nese agitation at Victoria, Id., May 5, 23, 1885; iS'. F. Chronicle, May 23, 
18S5. In 18S1 there was a railroad strike and anti-Chinese riot at Yale, an 
account of which is given in tlie S. F. Alta, May 16, 1881; Sac. Record-Union, 
Jlay 16, ISSl. As late at least as 1878 the Chinese invasion was not consid- 
ered to be a serious evil. Good's Brit. Col., MS., 104. For additional items 
and comments on the Chinese question, see Brit. Colonist, Apr. 13, 1878; 
Toronto Leader, in Vic. Standard, Apr. 17, 1873; Standard, Apr. 17, 1878, 
Apr. 30, May 15, 1879; New Westminster Guardian, May 10, 1879; Domin- 
ion Pac. Herald, March 22, 1879; S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 31, 1805, Aug. 6, 
Oct. 14, Nov. 4, 1878, March 11, 1879; Ccdl, May 12, 1876, June 13, 1879; 
Post, May 3, 1876; Alta, June 13, July 4, 1860; Chronicle, Sept. 1.3, 1878. 

"Tlie principal one was the 24th of May, the queen's birthday, and 



AN EASY LIFE. 713 

curred at too long intervals, little excuse was needed for 
proclaiming others. Recreation was considered as a 
portion of the programme of life; and tliroughout the 
warm season and tlie long twilight of the Indian 
summer, there were few evenings on which the bay 
was not dotted with pleasure craft,'^ and the roads 
thronged with vehicles, among the favorite drives 
being those to Esquimalt, to Richmond, and to Beacon 
Hill>^ 

In 18G1, and for several years thereafter, the in- 
comhig voyager was jolted over some three and a half 
miles of execrable road on his way from Esquimalt to 
Victoria. The intervening space was appropriated 
by thousands of Indians from the neighborhood of 
Nootka Sound, the western coast of Vancouver, and 
the borders of Alaska, and by human waifs from the 
Pacific coast settlements — men attracted in ever- 
increasing numbers since the gold excitement of 1858. 
There may have been some who came with honest in- 
teiit, but the majority were gathered for no good 
purpose, insomuch that the place was turned into a 
])andemonium, became the receptacle for stolen goods, 
the site of traffic in illicit whiskey, and illicit amours. 
Orgies of the most revolting character ceased not by 
day or night; there were hundreds of savage, drunken, 
and frenzied beings in human guise encountered at 
almost every turn of the path, beings among whom 

anion^ others may be mentioned the 4th of July, the prince of Wales' birth- 
d ly, coronation day, and dominion day. 

'^The favorite resort for boating parties was the Gorge, a narrow arm of 
tlie harbor, and 0])eninginto it by a passage so narrow that one might almost 
leap across it. 5. P. Bulletin, March 12, 1SS5. 

'^ In ISSl Victoria was lighted by elcctricty. S. F. Bulletin, Nov. 24, ISSl. 
For the Corporation of Victoria Water-works act, 1S73, amended by act of 
\'6~,o, see Voii'iol. Stat. D. C. (ed. 1877), 773-87; for Water-works Debenture 
(Guarantee act, 1874, Id., 787-90. The water was conveyed from Elk Lake, 
a ilistance of seven miles, the cost of the works being $-200,000. Brit. Col. 
Direct. , 1883, 1 1. For mention of earthquakes at Victoria, see S. F. Biillt-Un, 
Nov. IG. 1SG4; Dec. 17, 1872; Call, Oct. 6, 18G4; Abend Post, Jan. S, 1870; 
Sac. Uecord- Union, March 14, ISSI. For condition, progress, etc., at various 
dates, see .S'. P. Bulletin, June 2G, July G, S, 20, 2G, Dec. U, 1858; Feb. 15, 16, 
Apr. 15, IS, 1859; May 10, Nov. 10, 1SG2; Feb. 1, 1870: Alia, June 25, Aug. 
23, 1878; May 27, 1859; May 21, ISGO; May 13, 18G1, March 23. 1SG2; Call, 
Jan. 22, 1SG5; Times, Nov. 2, 18G7; Portland West Shore, July 1877. 



714 SETTLEMEXTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

the strong arm of the law could scarcely preserve 
the semblance of order." 

In 188G Esquimalt, where tw^o or three men-of-war 
were still usually stationed, furnished to the leaders of 
the city's fashion recruits for their balls, parties, kettle- 
drums, and lawn-tennis, while among the blue and 
scarlet attire of the marines and naval officers figured 
the gorgeous uniforms of the local artillery and mili- 
tia. Second only to the capital in the beauty of its 
sight, and far surpassing it in harbor facilities, the 
town once selected as the terminus of the Canadian 
Pacific railway, and, as many think, the future termi- 
nus, contained at the latter date probably less than 
a thousand white inhabitants.^^ 

Nanaimo and its neighborhood contained a popula- 
tion of about 4,500, the number being constantly 
increased by the arrival of miners, mechanics, and 
laborers. The line of the island railway passes 
through its centre, and from the point selected for the 
company's depot has been located toward D-eparture 
Bay. In the midst of a rich mineral and agricultural 
region, with extensive collieries in full operation, the 
bituminous coal of this district sellino^ at bisfher rates 
than Australian coal, or than any as yet produced on 
the Pacific coast,^^ with an excellent harbor, and with 
steamers and sailing craft from San Francisco, Port- 
land, Sitka, and other foreign and domestic ports 

^* On one occasion it required the presence of two or three vessels of war 
and a demonstration in force to restrain them. Good's Brit. Col., MS., 5. 

^^ According to the census returns for 1881, the white population of the 
Esquimalt district was 014, and the Chinese population 4,l'>u{). In 1S80 the 
graving-dock, which, when finished, will be one of the largest on the Pacific 
coast, bad not yet been completed. For papers relating to its construction, 
see Sess. Papers, B. C, 1880, 327-34; and for reports of the committee 
thereon, Jour. Legisl. Ass. B. C, 1882, 12, 27, 65. For act to incorporate 
the Esquimalt Water- works Company, see Stat. B. C, 1885, 157-06. 

i^At the close of 1885 the price of Nanaimo coal was §7 to §8.25 per ton, 
according to quality, against §5.87 a ton for Australian coal, $3.10 for Coos 
Bay, aud $6 fur Seattle coal. ^S'. F. Bulletin, Dec. 22, 1S85. The several dc- 
eci-iptions of Nanaimo coal were known as Douglas, Wellington, New Douglas 
{or Chase Eiver), Newcastle, South Fields, Alexandra, and Harewood. B. G. 
Direct, 1885, 116. The output of Nanaimo and Wellington coal was from 
Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, 1885, about 192,000 tons, the total deliveries for that 
period being some 887, 199 tons. 



NANAIMO AND NEW WEST.MINSTER. 715 

constantly at her wharves, Nanaimo, incorporated as 
a city in 1874, contained one of the most prosperous 
and contented communities in British Columbia." 
Welhngton, a short distance toward the north, and 
for which the shipping point was Departure Bay, a 
picturesque inlet of the Georgian Gulf, contained in 
188G about 1,200 people, and Coraox, a thriving vil- 
lage in the most northerly agricultural district of 
Vancouver, some 300 inhabitants. 

Of coal discoveries, collieries, and coal-mining suf- 
ficient mention has already been made in this volume. 
It remains only to be said that in 1885 the Vancouver 
Coal Mining and Land Company, in addition to their 
Nanaimo estate, which included the site of the city 
and maii}^ square miles of adjacent land, were the 
proprietors of the Wellington mine, the island of New- 
castle,^^ and the Protection Islands, and the Frew and 
Hare wood estates, the latter consisting of some 9,000 
acres. The company gave employment to about GOO 
men, at fair rates of wages,^^ and at a depth of GOO 
feet the well-known Douglas seam was found to be 
eight feet in thickness. 

Passing to the mainland. New Westminster/*^ with 
its neat and tasteful residences, built on wide and well- 
defmed streets, rising in regular gradients from the 
bank of the Fraser, with its salmon-fisheries, its 
farming and manufacturing interests, and its general 
air of respectability and thrift, contained in 1886 a 
population of more than 4,000. Near its centre stood 
the dominion government building, a handsome brick 
structure with facings of freestone. On the outskirts 
of the city were the provincial asylum for the insane, 

^' For act incorporating the Nanaimo Water-works Company, see Stat. 
B. C, 1SS5, 16:)-77. 

'^Wlicre is a valuable stone-quarry. 

"Miners earned from §2.50 to 85 a day; Indians and Cbinamen, of whom 
about 100 were employed as laborers, received §1 to §1.25. B. C. Direct., 
1SS4-5, 119. 

'^"Of which a description is given in the Portland West Shore, Feb. 18S0. 
For reports of superintendent and commissioners, see Sess. Pajjcrs, B. C, 
1884, 281, 335-45; 1SS3, 321-31. 



716 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

and one of the provincial penitentiaries,^^ the former 
a brick edifice, comnoanding a panoramic view, and 
partially surrounded with evergreen trees. 

Langlej, distant about seventeen miles from the 
former capital, was a favorite rendezvous for sports- 
men; and Lytton, some sixty miles beyond, a town 
which, like Lillooet, contained during the gold ex- 
citement a floating population numbered by the thou- 
sand, was again developing, after a long period of 
decadence, into a thriving town.^^ In the Chilli- 
whack municipality, east of Langley, were several 
thriving settlements, the one that bears that name 
being built on one of the most beautiful sites on the 
mainland. ^^ Savona's Ferry was at this date a grow- 
ing and prosperous settlement, and Kamloop bade fair 
to become one of the leading towns of the mainland 
interior. Clinton, situated 2,700 feet above the sea- 
level, at the junction of the Cariboo and Lillooet 
roads, and noted for the beauty of its scenery, was in 
a prosperous condition; and Barkerville, at the termi- 
nus of the Cariboo wagon-road, with a population of 
nearly 300 persons, enjoj^ed a good share of the gen- 
eral business of British Columbia.^^ 

Soda Creek, some forty miles above the mouth of 
the Chilkotin, was the point from which the upper 
Fraser was deemed navigable, the river between that 
village and Yale being obstructed by rapids. In its 
neighborhood were several flourishing farms, and here 
the wagon-road to Cariboo, which diverged at Lytton 
from the line of the stream, again struck the Fraser. 
Quesnel, about sixty miles beyond, and on the left 

'^^ Reports of the superintendent of police on provincial prisons will be 
found in Id., 1884, 441-63; 1883, 471-90; 1882, 457-500. There were also 
jails at Victoria, Nauaimo, and Clinton. 

^^At one time it contained only a dozen dilapidated buildings. Good's 
Brit. Col., MS., 67. In 1885 Lillooet contained only one broad street. New 
gold discoveries were constantly being made in its neighborhood, and the so- 
called Bridge River mines paid fair wages during the seasons of low water on 
the Fraser. B. C. Direct., 1885, 213. 

^ Among others were Centreville, the steamboat landing for Chilliwhack, 
Sumas, Popcum, and Cheam. 

^* In 1806 Barkerville was almost destroyed by fire. S. F. Call, Sept. 23, 



TOWN OF YALE. 717 

bank of the river, was the point of delivery by the 
steamer plying thence to Soda Creek, and shared with 
Barkerville the trade of the Cariboo country. At 
Alexandria, forty miles below Quesnel, was still one 
of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts, in the vicinity 
of which were also profitable farms, though the soil 
in parts required irrigation. 

Next to New Westminster, Yale ranked first among 
the settlements of the mainland, containing a resi- 
dent white population of five or six hundred souls, 
though during the construction of the railroad the 
number was considerably increased. Built entirely of 
wood, in 1881 the town was partially destro3'cd by 
fire.^^ A border place between the mainland coast 
and the mainland interior, and approached at various 
epochs by canoe, bateau, and steamboat, it contained, 
among other buildings, several excellent country-side 
hotels and stores, two churches, episcopal and catholic, 
and the provincial government school."^® 

Among the residents of Yale in 1878 may be men- 
tioned John B. Good,"^ who in 1861 arrived in the 
province as an evangelist under the auspices of the 
London Church Missionary Society for the propaga- 
tion of the gospel. Landing at Esquimalt in 18G1, 
at a time when the usually gentle savages had been 
roused to frenzy by the greed and aggression of min- 
ing adventurers, and the wholesale introduction of 

"^'^ The loss was estimated at $200,000. During the previous year a fire had 
occurred, causing damage to the amount of §75,000. S. F. BnUelin, Aug. 19, 
20, 18S1; Sacramento Union, Aug. 20, 23, ISSl; Stockton Independent, Aug. 
20, 1S8I, July 30, 18S0. 

^Tor further mention of towns and settlements in 1SS2, see Chittenden's 
Travfh in Brit. Col., 13-15, passim. 

=*' A native of Wrawby, Linconshire, England. He was in early youth 
a pupil of John West, the first Hudson's Bay Company's chaplain of Prmce 
Rupert Land, and completed his education at St Augustine college, Canter- 
bury. His first calling as a missionary was to Nova Scotia. To Mr Cootl I 
am indebted for a valuable manuscript, one often quoted in these pages as 
Good's British Columbia, and in which there are many interesting records as 
to society, politics, industries, and settlement. The most valuable portion 
of his narrative, however, is in connection with his experience as a missionary 
among tiie native tribes. 



718 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

fire-arms and fire-water,^^ Mr Good labored faithfully, 
and not in vain, for the improvement of their moral and 
phj^sical condition. Among others who have devoted 
themselves to the same cause may be mentioned Wil- 
liam Duncan, who, arriving at Fort Simpson as a 
missionary sent forth by the same society in 1858, 
afterward established a mission of his own on the 
eastern shore of Metlakathla Bay. By 1886 this 
establishment had developed into a town containing 
some 1,500 so-called civilized natives, with neat two- 
story houses and regular streets. The settlement was 
almost self-supporting, no outside aid being received 
except the voluntary offerings of visitors. The prin- 
cipal industry was the weaving of shawls. There was 
also a salmon cannery with a capacity of 10,000 cases 
a year; a sash and door factory; and a saw-mill and 
a brick-yard. The church, built entirely by the 
natives, and the materials for which, with the excep- 
tion of the windows, were of home production, had a 
seating capacity of nearly 1,000, and was one of the 
largest in British Columbia.^^ 

Among the Kootenai tribe a catholic mission was 
for many years in operation under Father Fouquett, 
of the Society of Jesus, and in the Okanagan Valley, 
Kamloop district, near Williams and Fraser lakes, 
in the Chilkotin country, at Lillooet, and on the lower 
Fraser were missions belonojino^ to the same order, 

■''^ About this date Good states that men-of-war were constantly needed to 
check the depredations of roving bands of Indians, hundreds of armed and 
drunlcen savages infesting the waters in the neighboi'hood of Nanaimo. In a 
passage above Cowitchan gap, just before entering the Nanaimo narrows, was 
a veritable cave of AduUum, the rendezvous for the members of several law- 
less tribes, who, under their chief, Ai'chewon, waylaid and murdered parties 
of explorers and emigrants. It was resolved to break up this pestilential 
crew, several men-of-war being sent for the purpose, among which was the 
Jjevnstation, commanded by Capt. Pike. Five of the principal offenders, 
among whom was Arcliewon, were arrested, and four of them sentenced to 
be hanged. Mr Good, who attended them during their last hours, relates 
that they showed not the slightest symptoms of compunction, and seemed 
only to regret that more of those whom they regarded as their legitimate prey 
had not fallen into their hands, which behavior was more consistent than that 
of the average white villain about to be hanged. Brit. Col., MS., 27-8. 

^"A description of this mission, among other places, will be found in the 
S. F. Bidletin, Aug. 27, I8S3. 



INDIAN rOLICY. 719 

their central missionary station being that of St 
Mary's, some thirty miles above New Westminster.'^ 

By the missionary society for the gospel propaga- 
tion missions were established also among the Chim- 
syans and Nishtacks, the Tahkats, the Cowitchins, 
and the Eraser and Thompson river tribes, $10,000 
being expended annuallj^, and during several years 
previous to 1871, for the support of eight mission- 
aries and the industrial training of these tribes.'^ At 
the latter date some 5,000 natives were under instruc- 
tion, and though considerable progress had been made, 
more teachers were needed. In a letter to the New 
England Company, the episcopal archdeacon of Van- 
couver remarks: " The government of this colony has 
hitherto had no definite or tangible policy with re- 
gard to the native Indian tribes. They have preserved 
for them crown lands under the name of Indian re- 
serves; they have prevented their lands being en- 
croached upon; they have in existence a liquor law, 
with penal clauses, stringent and severe, but honored 
more in the breach than in observance. Beyond this 
they have done nothing, so far as I know. There does 
not exist an Indian hospital in the colony to ameliorate 
the evils which contact with a too advanced stage of 
civilization has brought upon its unprepared victims." 
Out of an estimated government expenditure in 1869 
of £122,250, the amount put down for expenses con- 
nected with the Indian tribes was £100.'^ 

In Canada the interests of the Indian population 
have always been guarded with special solicitude by 
the government; but in British Columbia the con- 

^"Oood's Brit. Col, MS., 97-8. It is related that at the Okanagan mis- 
sion, many years ago, the venerable French padres invited tlicir scholars, one 
festal day, to partake of some nicely cooked frogs; whereat ti.e savages scat- 
tered in terror to their homes, the appearance of a frog being regarded by them 
as the premonition of calamity. 

*'In 1 SSI, according to the return of the Indian department, the natives 
settled on the banks of the Thompson, above Lytton, owned 5,925 horses, 
557 cows, a number of work-oxen, and raised 1.35 tons of cereals, G52 tons of 
hay, and 12,570 bushels of potatoes. B. 0. Direct., 1882-3, 14. 

^^ B. C. Papers, Ind. Land Question, 1850-75, 97-8. The archdeacon'n 
letter was published in the Columbia report for 1870. 



720 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

dition of the natives was, until recent years, less satis- 
factory than in other portions of the dominion. In this 
province no Indian title to land was recognized, as was 
the case elsewhere in British America. Under the 
auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company, and under 
the regime of Sir James Douglas, the title was in- 
deed conceded, but not so in later years. Although 
there may never have been any danger of serious or 
permanent revolt, there were, as we have seen, several 
formidable outbreaks, and frequent danger of cohision. 
There may be seen to-day throughout British Colum- 
bia nations and individuals in all conditions, from 
untutored savagism, attired simply in a verminous 
blanket, and perched like a bird of prey on a rock, 
catching his dinner of fish, to the well-clad and in- 
dustrious inmate of comfortable homes. In the former 
condition the Indian is neither a producer nor a con- 
sumer; in the latter he is both; and in proportion as 
his condition is improved will he contribute to the 
wealth of the province. 

The task of improving the condition of the natives 
has been rendered less difficult by the fact that the 
intrusion of the white man has not diminished 
their supplies of food. Fish and game, which, as in 
Alaska, form the staple diet of the aboriginal, and 
were as necessary to him as bread and meat to the 
white man, or the plantain and banana to the dweller 
within the tropics, are still as plentiful as ever. To 
the nomad tribes of Canada the buffalo was their sole 
resource, supplying them not only with food, but with 
fuel, clothes, and shelter. The extinction of this ani- 
mal brought upon them starvation and beggary; while 
in British Columbia the Indian has not only been 
furnished with better implements for securing his food, 
but has been taught how to farm, and thus acquired a 
new source of food supply. Not only is this the case, 
but, as I have said, natives are largely employed as 
herders, laborers, porters, and in various industries,^ 

'^ Especially in the Mainland interior, where their well-known honesty 



FORTS. 721 

and tliis from no motives of philanthropy. "I believe," 
said the marquis of Lorne,^* during his visit to the 

recommends them for employment. Among the instances of the trust reposed 
in them may be mentioned one that occurred in the autunm of 1S7- or 1873, 
when a merchant on his way to Lillooet witli a cargo of flour, his craft being 
stranded on a sand-bar, stacked the entire freight on tlie river banlc, simply 
covering it with tarpaulin. There it was left until the following spring, 
when it was found undisturbed. Tlie nearest house was but three miles away, 
and during the winter the Indians were buying flour in that neighborhood at 
very high rates. In The Northwest Territories and British t'ohtmbia, by 
JEneafi McDonnell Dawson, Ottawa, 1881, is a description of the food, habits, 
and condition of some of the natives at that date. There arc here also re- 
marks on the climate, vegetation, fisheries, industries, fauna, flora, and general 
resources of B. C. The work is of little value, except for the index, which 
contaius items of information culled from various resources. 

^* Dominion of Canada Guide- Book, 1885, 75. The following catalogue of 
forts, with reference to fuller descriptions, points to some of the early centres 
of occupation. Champoeg, .i5 n)iles from the mouth of the Willamette, was 
a trading post established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1840. Gray's 
Oreyon, 4-2. In 185G it was still in existence. J I. B. C'o.'s Rept, 307. Fort 
Kamloopon the Thompson; forts Alexander, William, Garey, and Abercrom- 
bie, in New Caledonia; Paipert, on north side of V. I.; Simpson, on the main- 
land, near the Portland canal; Wrangel, a stockade, origmally on Dundas 
Island, at the mouth of the Stickeen, and afterward removed GO miles up the 
river, and known as Fort Stickeen — all belonged to the H. B. Co. Gray's Ore</on, 
43. Fort Thompson was established by David Thompson in 1810 on the site of 
Kamloop. Fort Franklin was erected in 1825 on G reat Bear Lake for Franklin's 
expedition to the Polar sea. Lardner, iii. 240. Chinook Point post was in the 
Columbia district. JJ. B. Co.'s Bept, 367. The Cowlitz post in W. T. was in 
existence in 1850. A Spanish fort at Meah Bay, V. I., built in 1792, and sur- 
rounded l)y a stockade, was soon afterward abandoned, and then burned by 
Indians. Loans' Or., MS., 07. Fort Santa Cruz, on the north point of Nootka 
entrance, was also a Spanish stronghold and settlement. Vlajes al Nor/e, MS., 
385. Long before tlie conquest of Canada, the French had a post at Pasquia, on 
tlie Saskatcliewan. Machemie's Voy. , Ixix. On the same river was Fort Augus- 
tus. /(/., Ixix., Ixxiii. Fort Carlton, on the south side of the Saskatciiewan, 
was protected by high palisades, and at each angle was a small square tower. 
In 1835 it was attacked by Indians. Martins UudsousBay, 17; Smet's Miss., 
124; Milton and Hieadle's'X. W. Passage, 49. Fort Cumberland, on Sturgeon 
Lake, at theiiiouthof the Saskatchewan, was built in 1774. Franklin's A arr., 
i. 91; Smet's Mis.-<., 124; Mackenzie's Voy., Ixix. Fort ;\ la Crosse was also in 
the Saskatchewan district. J/. B. Co.'s Uept, 305. Fort Edmonton, on the 
north braiiL-h of the Saskatchewan, was Iniilt in the form of a iiexagon, witii 
high pickets, bastions, and battlementcd gateways, and lay on a commanding 
height. Martin's Hudson's Bay, 18, 124. In 1840 it contained about 130 in- 
habitants. Kane's Wanderings, 130. It was the chief post in this region, and 
was also known as Fort Auguste. S)net's Miss., 122-4. Fort Confidence was 
a mere log structure, without defensive works, forming three sides of a square, 
and stood at the northern end of Great Bear Lake. BichardiOn's Jour., ii. 
03-5. Dunvegan post lay in the Athabasca district. Hudson's Bay Co.'s Bept, 
305. In 1787 there was a fort on Elk River. Mackenzie's Voy., 129. Fort 
Chipewan, one of the most important posts of the N. W. Co. was buiU on 
a rocky point of the northern shore of Athabasca Lake. Mackenzie's Voy., 
Ixxxvii.; Martin's Hudson's Baj/, 18; II. B. Co.'s l!tpt,'i(Jo; Franklins A an\, 
i. 237. Fort Assiniboine was built on the Athabasca. //. B. Co.'s Bept, 305; 
Smet's viy;.v.v., 124. On the Assiniboiue and its tributaries were three posts of 
the N. W. Co. and two of the H. B. Co. Lewis and Clarke's Map. East Mam 
Factory stood opposite Albany Fort at the foot of James Bay, in about lati- 
HlsT. Bkit. Col. 4(3 



722 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

capital in 1882, "I have seen the Indians of ahnost 
every tribe throughout the dominion, and nowhere 

tude 52° 30' N. BoucheUe, Brit. Dom., i. 33. A log fort was built hy Frank- 
lin in JS20, at Winter Lake, about 150 miles north of Slave Lake, and named 
Fort Enterpi'ise. A dwelling-house and storehouse were added. Franklhi's 
Narr., i. 1-14. Here Franklin passed the winter of 1821-2. Bkhardtion''s 
Polar, 148. Fort Franklin, on the west shoie of Great Bear Lake, where 
Lieut Hooper passed the winter of 1849, was merely a log hut 20 by IS feet. 
Ilooper^s Tents of the Tuski, 305-6. In the Athabasca district was a jjost 
named Fond du Lac. II. B. Co.'s Bcpt, 365. Fort Francis, in Red Fiiver dis- 
trict, consisted of a number of buildings in the form of a square, surrounded 
by a ten-foot stockade. Gritiit^s Ocean, 46. In the same district was a jiost 
known as Lower Fort Garry. U. B. Co.^s Bcpt, 365. This was one of the 
strongest forts in the H. B. territory, the walls being built of stone and with 
bastions at each corner. It stood on the north bank of Assiniboine Biver, 
about 200 yards from its junction with Red River. Kane's Wanderingft, 96; 
Cornwallis, 62; Milton and Cheadles' JV. IF. Passage, 36. At Georgetown, on 
Red River, there was in a 1868 a warehouse belonging to the H. B. Co. 
Coffin's Seat of Empire, 79. Fort Good Hope, in the Mackenzie district, was 
moved in 1836 about 100 miles above on the Mackenzie, on account of floods. 
H. B. C'o.'s Bept, 305; Bichardson's Jour., i. 213. At Green Lake post, in 
English River district, the H. B. Co. and N. W. Co. had establishments on 
opposite sides of the river in 1820. H. B. C'o.'s Bept, 305; Franklin's Narr., 
i. 192. For mention of Fort George on the Saskatchewan, see Mackenzie's 
Voy., Ixlx., Ixxiii.; of Fort George and Great Whale River post, in East JMain 
district. //. B. C'o.'s Bept, 366; of Grand Lac post, in the Temiscamingue 
district; of Godboutpost, in King's Posts district; of Fort Halkett, in the Mac- 
kenzie district. On the northern branch of the Saskatchewan there M'as, in 
1820, a post named Hudson House. On the east bank of Harricanaw River was 
a small establishment belonging to the H. B. Co. Bouchetle's Brit. Dom., i. 33. 
In the Moose and Temiscamingue districts were posts named Hannah Bay and 
Hunter's Lodge. H. B. Co. 's Bept, 366. On He d la Crosse Lake, near Beaver 
River, the H. B. Co. and N. W. Co, had forts in 1820, situated close together 
and on the south side of the lake. About 1815 the H. B. fort was captured 
by the N. VV. Co. Id., 365; Franklin's JVarr., i. 196; Cox's Advent, 227-8. The 
lake was named after an island therein, where the Indians used to play the 
game of la-crosse. Franklin's Narr., i. 197. In the King's Posts district was 
the Isle Jeremie post. H. B. C'o.'s Bept, 366. The Jasper House post, on 
the Athabasca, 300 miles above Fort Assiniboine, contained in 1846 only 
three log huts; but was the centre of communication between the Columbia 
district and Fort Edmonton. In 1872 it was almost abandoned. Kane's Wan- 
derings, 153-4; Smet's Miss., 124, 127, 130; Grant's Ocean, 232. In Fort 
Coulongedistrict was the Joachin post; in Eskimo Bay district, Kibokokpost; 
in St Maurice district, Kikandatch post; in Temiscamingue district, Kakabea- 
gino post; in Rupert's River district, Kaniapiscow post; in tlie Kinogumisse 
district, Kuckatoosh post; in Albany district, Lac Seul post; in Lac la Pluie 
district, Lac de Bonnet and Lac de Bois Blanc posts; in Lake Superior dis- 
trict, Long Lake and Lake Nipigon posts; and in Lake Huron district. Little 
Current post. //. B. C'o.'s Bept, 365-6. On Green Bay, Lake Michigan, was 
a stockade much dilapidated when ^•isited by Mr Carver in 1766. After its 
surrender to the English, in 1763, it was garrisoned by 30 men, v/ho were 
made prisoners soon after the surprise of Michillimackinac, after which it was 
neither garrisoned nor repaired, (,'arver, 22. Lac la Pluie was a Hudson's Bay 
Co.'s trading post on the height of land dividing the waters which flow into 
the St Lawrence from those which fall into Hudson Bay, and distant some 
1,300 miles from Montreal. The N. W. Co. had a post here in 1806. Mar- 
tin's Hudson's Bay, 123; Cox's Adveyit, ii. 269-70; Lewis and Clarke's Map. 
La Mont^e was a N. W. Co.'s post about three miles from Carleton. Frank- 



THE GENTLE SAVAGE. 723 

can you find any who are so trustworthy in regard to 
conduct, so willing to assist the white settlers by their 

lin's Narr., i. 162. Lesser Slave Lake and Lac la Biclie posts were in the 
Saskatcliewau district. //. B. Co.'s RejJt, 30.3. Fort La Crosse, on the border 
of Long Lake, was in existence in 1848. Martin's Ilvdxoiis Baij, 18. Lapierrc'a 
House and Fort aux Liards were in the Mackenzie district. 11. U. C'o.'sliept, 
3G5. Lake Nepisingue post was in the Tetniscaniingue district; Lacloche post 
in Lake Huron district; Lac d'Original in Lake Superior district; Little Whale 
lUver post in East Main district; Lac des Allumettcs post in Fort Coulong dis- 
trict; and Lachinc House post in Lachine district. On tiie Saskatchewan there 
was in 1845 a post named Fort des Montaignes. Smet's Miss., 1"24. Moose Fac- 
tory, about 700 miles from Montreal, was the priucipal depot on the south sliore 
of Hudson's Day, and there were numerous stations connected with it. Martbi's 
Ihidsoii^s Bay, 1 23. In the Cumberland district was a small post named Moose 
Lake. II. B. Co.'s Bept, ?,65. The trading posts on ]\Iethye Lake were mere 
huts, erected in 1819. Franldhi's Narr., i. 1*01. In Ilcd River district was the 
Manitobah post; in Albany district, Marten's Falls post; in Kinogumisse dis- 
trit, ilalawagamingue post. II. B. Co.'s Bept, 300. Michipicotou post, on the 
shore of Lake Superior, was in 1840 the chief factory in Lake Suj'erior district. 
Ibid. ; Martin's Hudson's Bay, 123. At the south end of Lake Winnipeg was 
Fort Maure])as; on the north branch of the Saskatchewan there was, in li>20, 
a post named Manchester House; on Itcd River one named Marlboro' House, 
and on Peace lliver, amid the Eocky Mountains, one named McLeod's 
Fort. At a council licld at Norway House, in 1840, it was resolved to estab- 
lish missions at that point, and also a Lac la Pluie and I'dmonton. A catholic 
mission Mas established at He h, la Crosse in 1840. Muriln's Hudson's Bay, 
127-7; Bdchardxon's Jour., i. 104. Norway House, at the north end of Lake 
W'innipeg, was in 1848 one of the chief depots of the H. B. Co., and it was 
intended to make it the residence of the general superintendent of missions. 
Martins Hudson's Bay, 124. It was founded in 1819 by a party of Norwe- 
gians, who were driven from Red River in 1814-15, and took up their abode 
at Norway Point. Franklin's Narr., i. 07; Bouchctte's Brit. Bom., i. 41. 
]Mamainse post was in Lake Superior district; Fort Macphcrson on Peel River 
near the Mackenzie; Mississangee post in Lake Huron district; Mistasinn3'and 
Mechiskau posts in Rupert's River district; Matawa post in Fort Coulongc dis- 
trict; Musquarro post in Mingan district; Mingan post in the district of that 
name. II. B. Co.'s liept, 30G. Long l)efore tiie conquest of Cauada, the French 
had a settlementat Nepawi, on the Saskatchewan. In 1700 it was named Ne- 
pawi House. Mackenzie's Voy. , Ixix. , Ixxiii. Fort Nascopic was in Eskimo Ray 
district; Natosquan post in Mingan district; and Fort Norman in Mackenzie 
district. //. B. Co.'s Bept, 300. Port Nelson River post was captured by the 
French in 1GG5. The French port on Port Nelson River was nametl in 1007 Port 
Bourbon, and afterward York Foi-t. Forstcr's H ist. Voy., S", 310. InlSliHt 
stood on the west bank of Hayes River, five miles above its mouth, on the 
marshy peninsula which separates Hayes and Nelson Rivers. The buildings 
formed a square, with an octagonal court in the centre, the servants' houses 
being outside the square, and the whole surrounded with a stockade 20 feet in 
height. Franklin's Narr., i. 37-8. Fort New Severn was on the south-eastern 
shore of Hudson's Bay. North AVest River post was in the Eskimo Bay dis- 
trict; Nitchequon post in Rupert River district; and New Brunswick post in 
Moose district. //. B. Co. 's Bept, 3GG. Old Establishment was built in 1 778-0 
on Peace River, some forty miles from Atliabasca Lake, and was the only fort in 
that region till 1785. In 1788 the post was transferred to the southern side 
of Athabasca Lake, about eight miles from the mouth of Athabasca Biver, its 
name being changed to Fort Chipewyan. Mackenzie's Toy., Ixxxvii. On Peace 
River there was, in 1820, a post named New Establishment. In 181 !> Oxford 
House post, in York district, was falling into decay. II. B. Co.'s B(],t, ."OG; 
Franklin's Narr., i. 57. In Albany district was a post named Osnaburg. 



724 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

labor, so independent and anxious to learn the secret 
of the white man's power. While elsewhere are met 

H. B. Co.'s Rept, 366. Fort de Prairies belonged in 1817 to the N. W. Co., as 
also Fort Providence, north of Gt Slave Lake. Cox's Advent, ii. 265; FranUbi's 
Narr., i. 313. The Pas post was in Cumberland district; Portage la Loche 
post in English Eiver district; and Peel's River post in the Mackenzie district. 
H. B. C'o.'sliept, 365. Fort Pitt lay on the Saskatchewan, in lat. srSO', long. 
108". Smet's Mi>iS., 124. Fort Pelly was a compact post on the route between 
forts Garry and Carlton, having the Assiniboine Pdver in front. Ilartin's 
JJudnon'sBay, 17. For mention of Fort Chnrchill or Prince of Wales Fort, see 
Cox's Advent, ii. 397. Pike Lake post was in Rupert's River district; Pigeon 
lliver post in Lake Superior district; and Pic post, in the same district, on the 
north shore of the lalie, belonged in 1817 to the N. W. Co. //. B. Cc's liept, 
3G6; Cox's Advent, ii. 295. Pierre an Calumet, also a post of the H. B. Co., on 
a high, steep bank on the Athabasca, a little aljovc tlie confluence of the Clear 
Water, was so named from the place where the stone for Indian pipes was 
obtained. A post of the H. B. Co. on the opposite bank was abandoned in 
1819 for want of supplies. Franklin's Narr., i.. 213. Pembina post was in 
Red River district; Qu'appelle Lakes post in Swan River district; Fort Rae 
in Mackenzie district; Rapid River post in English River district; Rocky 
Mountain House in the Saskatchewan district; and Fort Resolution in the 
Mackenzie district. H. B. Co.'s Bept, 365. Red Deer River Fort was on or 
near Lake Winnipeg. Mackenzie's Voy., Ixv. Rupert's Fort was in 1766 at 
the mouth of the river of that name. H. B. Co.'s Rept, 366. In 1740 the 
French had, on the upper waters of the Rupert, a factory which secured all 
the trade of that I'egion. Dohbs' IJud.ion's Bay, 50. Rigolet post was in tlie 
Eskimo district; Riviere Desert post in Lac des Sables district; Reed Lake 
post in Red River district; Rat Portage j^ost in Lac de Pluie district; and 
iShoal River post in Swan River district. JI. B. Co.'s Rept, 365-6. In 1789- 
93 there were five principal factories on the Saskatchewan, and one named 
the South Branch House. Mackenzie's Voy., Ixix., Ixxiii. On the Swan River 
was a post of the same name, and one named Somerset House. Fort St Louis 
was built by the Canadian viceroy de Tracey, at the mouth of Richelieu or 
Iroquois River. It was afterward named Sosel, and then William Henry. In 
1817 it was the principal entrepSt of the N. W. Co. //. B. Co.'s Rept, 366; 
Cox's Advent, 268-93. Near Swan River Fort, on Lake Winnipeg, were sev- 
eral detached posts. Id., Ixv. Shoal Lake post was in the Lac de Pluie dis- 
trict, and Severn post in York district. H. B. Co.'s Rept. 365-6. Sault St 
Maire post was also in Yoi'k district, at the point where Lake Superior dis- 
charges into Lake Huron. In 1817 the N. W. Co. had large stores at this 
point. H. B. Co.'s Rept, 366; Cox's Advent, ii. 299. Lake St John's, Tadousac, 
and Seven Islands posts were in King's Posts district; Touchwood Hills post 
in Swan River district; Trout Lake post in York district; Temiskamay post 
in Rupert's River district; Temiscamingue house and post were in the district 
of that name; Three Pdvers post was in St Maurice district; and Vermilion 
was a post in Athabasca district. //. B. Co.'s Rept, 365-6. On the Saskatche- 
wan was a post named Upper Establishment. Mackenzie's Voy., Ixix., Ixxiii. 
Thorburne House was a post on Red River. Fort Frontenac, originally called 
Fort Cataraconi, founded in 1670, on the present site of Kingston, was rebuilt 
in 1678. In 1768 it was captured by the English. Monette's Hist. Discov. and 
Settlement, i. 120, 132-3. Fort George was in 1842 a large trading post twelve 
miles below Fort Lancaster (Colo.), and was under St Vrain's management. 
Scenes Rocky Mts, 160. The N. ^V. Co. had in 1806 a post on the west 
shore of Lake Superior, near Grand Portage. Lewis and Clarke's Map. Fort 
Wedderburne was built by the H. B. Co. on Coal Island, at the western ex- 
tremity of Athabasca Lake, about the year 1815, when the company first 
began to trade in that region. Franklin's Narr., i, 236. White Horse Plain 
post was in Red River district; White Dog post in Lao la Pluie district; 



FOrtTS. 725 

constant demands for assistance, your Indians liave 
never asked for any; for in the interviews given to 

Whitefish Lake post in Lake Huron district; Wosuonaby post in llupcrt'a 
Eiver district; and Weyinontachiiigue post in St Maurice district. JI. B. ( 'o.'s 
Rpjit, oGj-6. Fort Cass, built in 162G at tlic moutli of Big Horn Eivcr, with 
block houses and a log wall IS feet high, was soon afterward rciuoved 30 miles 
lower down the Yellowstone. Bcckwottrlh's Life ami Advent., '212-13, 220, o03. 
The French colonists under Robcrval and Cartier built Fort Cliarlesbourg 
near the present site of Quebec about 1541. It was the (irst European settle- 
ment in this part of America. Tytler'.f Proyr. o/Jjiseov., G7. Fort Caroliue 
M'as erected by Landonni^re on May River, just above the spot afterward 
known as St John's Bluff. It was in the shape of a triangle, fronting on tho 
liver, with the woods in rear. In 1,")G.3 it was destroyed liy the Spaniards. 
Bryant, i. 198. Fort Campbell was in the country of the Blackfcct, 700 miles 
from Fort Union. Boiler's Amoiuf the Iiidian.s, 44. Fort Lancaster was on 
the south bank of the Platte, 900 miles from its mouth, and 33 miles from the 
Rocky Mountains. Scenes lloclij Jits, 1G4-5. Fort Laramie, or, as it was some- 
times termed. Fort John, a post of the American Fur Company, was one mile 
south of Fort Platte, and on the left bank of Lai'amie River, and was named 
after Joseph Laramie, a French trapper, killed near its mouth. It stood ou 
a rising ground, was picketed and bastioncd, had adobe walls, and was sur- 
mounted by a wooden palisade. Thornton's Oregon, 112-13; Faji Tramp's 
Prairie and Pocky Mt. Advent., 3G0-1; Scenes Pocky Mis, 06, 131. Six miles 
below Ft George (Colo.) was the post of Lock and Randolph. 

Below the Simeon branch of Peace River was built at an early day a little 
fort named St John. About 1 823 it was attacked by a baud of Beaver Indians, 
who shot the commander and four mcu, and burned the fort. Another Fort 
St John was built at the bend of the river above. The N. VV. Co. had a 
post on the west side of Bulialo Lake, near Beaver River. FranUlii'c Narr., 
i. 199. Fort Erie was on the north side of Lake Erie, near its outlet. Six 
miles below the mouth of la Fontaine qui Bouit there existed in lS35the ruins 
of an old fort, occupied many years before by Capt. Grant as a trading post. 
In ISGG the fort at Minetarccs was occupied by Indians. Poller's Among the 
Indians, 41G. In 1848 Miehipicoten was the chief factory on Lake Superior. 
Martin's Jludsou's Bay, 123. Berens liiver post \>as in Norway House dis- 
trict; Big Island post in the Mackenzie district; Batchcwaua post in LaLo 
Superior district; Chicoutimic post in King's Posts district; Buckingham post 
in Lac do Sables district; Abitibi post in Moose district. JI. B. L'o.'s Prpt, 
3G5-6. Brochet House was on Lake Winnipeg. J/'acA.v/fji.^'.s Toy., Ixix.; Man- 
uel's Fort on the Yellowstone. Lewis and Clarke's Map. Fort Isle au Niox, 
or Fort Lennox, on an island in Richelieu River, was tortilied by the French 
in 1739, and by Schuyler in 1775. Green Lake post was in Lake Huron dis- 
trict, and Egg Lake post in Swan River district. JJ. B. C'o.'s Pept, 3G5-6. 
Fort Dauphin, probably near Lake Winnipeg, was established by the French 
before Wolfe's victory at Quebec. Mackenzie's Voy. , Ixv. Deer Lake post was 
in the English River district, at the southern end of Deer Lake;^ Caweeman 
post in Cohimbia district; Fort EUice in Swan district. //. B. Co.'.t Pept, 305, 
307. Fort Charlesbourg, built by the French about 1540-1, near the site of 
Quebec, was the lirst settlement in this part of America. Brit. X. Amer., 10. 
The lirst fort on the St Lawrence was built by Cartier in 1535. Fort Charles 
was on the south side of the Lake of the Woods. In lOOS Capt. tiillam built 
for the English their first fort on Hudson's Bay, at the mouth of Rupert River, 
naming it Fort Charles. Forster's J list. Voy., 378. Russell, IPisl. Amcr., u. 
264, a'n-ecs with Forster as to date, but says that Grosseliez, a French rene- 
gade on White River, 80 miles north-west of Fort Platte, was a fur-trading 
post. Scenes in Pocky Mis, 72-3. Tadoussac post stood in 1050 at the mouth 
of Saguenay River. Shea's Missis., xlv. Fort Platte, at the junction of tho 
Laramie and Platte, wcjs built of earth, and in 1842 contained about a dozen 



726 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

the chiefs, their whole desire seemed to be for schools 
and school-masters; and in reply to questions as to 

buildings and some 30 employes. Scenes Rochi Mts, 66; Van Tramp's Prairie 
and Roclcy Mt. Advent., 3G0-1. St Vrain's Fort was on the right bank of the 
south fork of the Platte, 17 miles east of Long's Peak. Fremont, in Id., 357. 
Fort Alexander, at the outlet of Winnipeg River, contained in 1817 only five 
inmates. Fort Abercrombie was on lied River, above the point navigable for 
steamers. Coffin's Seat of Empire, 79. Fort Albany was at the foot of James 
Bay. Bouchette's Brit. J)07n. ,1.33. It was established before 1780. Hee Fors- 
ter's Hist. Voy.fSld. Fort Augustus was in Queen's co.. Can. Fort Uintah, 
on a tributary of the Colorado, and one day's journey south of Ashley's Fork, 
•was also known, in 1825, as Rubidcan's Fort. Scenes Body Mts, 178, 202. 
Fort Lawrence was a seaport of Nova Scotia. On tlie north-east side of Atha- 
basca Lake was Fort Fond du Lac. Pigeon Lake House was at the source of 
Battle River. Pike Lake House and Green Lake House were north of Stink- 
ing Lake; Rapid River House was near Lac la Rouge; and Sturgeon River 
House between Sturgeon and Beaver lakes. Fairford House and Mission was 
between Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba. Fort Touchwood Hills lay between 
the Assiniboine and Qu'Appelle rivers. Mountain House was in the Riding 
Mountains, west of Lake Manitoba. Fort Pelley was on the Assiniboine. 
Old Fort, on Pelican Lake, was near the head waters of the Black or West 
Road River. In recent maps the first Fort Simpson, near the mouth of Nass 
or Naas River, is also termed Old Fort. Jasper House was at t^ie head wa- 
ters of the Athabasca; Rocky IMountain House and Victoria House at the 
head waters of the North Saskatchewan; Salt River House on Slave River, 
south of Slave Lake. Robidoux Fort, in the Green Paver country, was, like 
many others in its vicinity, the post of a private trader, having in his employ 
a number of trappers who made their headquarters at the fort. Peter's Kit 
Carson, 139. On the east side of Okanagan Lake was a catholic mission. 
Fort Bulklej' House was at the north-east side of Tacla Lake. Fort Buchanan 
lay south-west from Tuscon, near the Santa Cruz branch of the Gila River. 
Near the Jiead waters of the Gila were forts Bayard and Mimbres. Fort 
Staunton was at the source of the Rio Bonito, which discharges into the Pico, 
and on the Pico, above the former river, was Foi't Summer. Fort Bascom 
was on the Canadian River, east of Santa Fe; Fort Bi-eckenridge, on the San 
Pedro branch of the Gila, near the mouth of the former. Of Fort McPherson 
Absaraka says that it consisted originally of shabby log cabins, but subse- 
quently became a Vv-ell-built fort. Home of the Crows, 4G. Kearny or Kearney 
Fort, built on Piney fork of Powder River, at the base of Big Horn Mountains 
in 1866, was pronounced one of the best stockades in north-western America. 
Fort Reno, oi'iginally Forb Connor, near Salt Lake City, and so called after 
General Connor, was built in 18G5, and New Fort Reno, 40 miles to the west- 
ward, in 18G6. Fort Mitchell, a sub-post of Fort Laramie, was in compact 
and rectangular shape, the sides of the buildings doing duty for walls, and 
their windows loopholed for defence. Id. , 70. La Pierre's House was on the 
west side of the Rocky Mountains, near Peel River. Smithsonian Bept, ISGl, 
59. Fort Wright was in the %vestern part of Round Valley, 100 miles from 
Chico. Ind. Aff. Bept, 1863, 402. Fort Crocket, also called Fort JMisery, from 
itr appearance, stood, in 1839, on the left bank of Green River, two days' 
journey from Heniy's Fork, Col. WizUzenn's Auyflug, 94. For description of 
Fort Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia, in 1811-39, see Cox's Advent., i. 
83, 109-10; Gra7fs Or., 20-1; Farnham's Travels, 105; and of Fort Boise, Or., 
in 1832. For mention of forts Yukon, St Michael, and Wrangell, Alaska, see 
Hist. Alaska, passim, this series. Fort Goodwin was in Tularoso valley, 
three miles from Gila. Land.Off. Bept, 1865, 115-16. Fort Cummings was on 
tlie road between Santa F6 and Cubac, 60 miles from Las Cruces, New ]\Iex. 
Id., 1865, 115. For mention of forts Laramie and Leavenworth in 184G-7, 
see Hist. Utah, passim, this series; Parkman's Cal. and Or. Trail, caps, iii., 



FOETS. 7-27 

whether they would assist themselves in securino: such 
institutions, they invariably replied that they would 
he glad to pay for them." 

ix. Fort Whipple was on Granite Creek, one mile below Prcscott, Ar. Land 
Off. Bept, 18G5, 121. Fort Bowie, in New Mex., was on the road between 
Santa F^and Tubac, 150 miles from the latter. Id., 180.1, 115-10. Fort Owen 
was bnilt by a trader of that name on the site of a mission at St Mary or Flat- 
head village, Mont. Pac. R. IL Ucpt, i. 1201, 292. Fort Lane was in 1855 a 
cavalry station on Rogue River, near its junction with Stewart Creek. Camp 
Wortli, also called Fort Worth, and C.imp Graham were in Texas. Wilhclm's 
Ehjhth U. S. Inf., ii. 22, 28. Fort Bliss was at El Paso, New Mex. Id., ii. 
43. Fort Orford was on the Or. coast; Fort Harmony on Wood Creek, Utah. 
Lid. Aff. Repl, 1854, 270; 1830, 233. For list of posts occujned by the eighth 
infantry with location about 1840, see Wilhdm's Ehjlith U. S. Inf., ii. 205-82. 
In /(/., ii. 32-50, is mention of a number of posts in New Mex. and Texas, but 
they are difficult to locate. In the Metror. Pu-rj., 1843-54, 580-94, is a list of 
U. S. military posts, including those ou the Pacific coast, witli geographic 
))osition in 1840-54. In the Navajo country, New Mex., there was in 1859 a 
fort named Dcliance, soon afterward abandoned, and in Utali, on the Sta 
Claia River, was Fort Clara. Ind. Aff. Rcpt, 1859, 348; ISGS, 104; 1850, 234. 
Fort Simcoe, in east Washington, was abandoned as a military post in 1859 
or before, tiie Yakima Indian agency taking possession thereof. Fort West 
was in 1803 on the head waters of the Gila. Ind. Aff. Jt. Com. Rept, 1807, 
111. In Colo, stood in 1805 forts Riley, Larned, and Lyon. Fort Randall 
Mas in Todd co.. Dak.; Fort Wiugate in the Navajo country, New Mex. Ind. 
Aff. Rept, 1807, 330, 412. For list of forts in New Jlex. in I8G3, see Iwl. 
Aff. J I. Com. Rept, 1807, passim. For list of U. S. forts and military stations 
in 1825 see Sen. Doc, i. vol. i. 180, Wlh Coiirj., 2dSess.; in 1851, llouw. Ex. 
Doc, 2, vol. ii. jit. i., 32d Cong., IstSess. The names and locations of 70 U. S. 
forts in existence in 1837, with number of guns and garrisons, are given in /(/., 
3, ro/. i. 201-8, 25th Cong., 2d Sexs. For description of H. B. Co.'s forts in 
\Vash., Or., and Id. in 1854, see Sen. Doc, no. 37, vol. vii. Soil Cong., Jd Seav. 
Adaes, 14 miles from Natchitoches, was a military post founded in ISOO. 
Ilonette, IJist. Discov. and Settlement, ii. 341. Adams Fort was founded 
in 1798 on the Mississippi, in Natchez district, a few miles beyond the 
Spanish line. A stockade fort of the same name was built in 1794, on or 
near St Mary's River, 47 miles fnuii Greenville, 0. Albany was so named 
by the Euglisli, after its capture, in 1004, from the Dutch, by whom it was 
termed Fort Orange. Drijant, ii. 200. Altona, captured from tlie Dutclx iu 
1055, was originally called Fort Christina. Id., ii. 102. Amite Rivei-, Fla— a 
small fort on tliis river was surrendered to Spain iu 1779. Monette, i. 438. 
Amsterdam Fort was founded in 1020; for mention see Bri/aut, i. 300-7; ii. 
200, 341, 348-9, 354. Arbuckle Fort was on tlie Washita branch of Red 
River, Tex. A little to tlie east of it was Fort Washita. Arkansas Fort was 
established in IGSG by the chevalier de Tonti, near the mouth of the Arkansas. 
Pratz, i. 5, 7; Monette, i. map. Another post of t'ne same name was built by 
tlie French in 1721, about GO miles above the mouth of the Arkansas. Ou 
the upper waters of the Arkansas there was, in 1800, a block Jiouse and U. S. 
factory. Lewis and Clarke, map. Assumption Fort was built by the French as 
a depot in 17.39, on the east bank of the ^Mississippi, near the mouth of ilar- 
got or Wolf River. The following year it was dismantled. Monette, i. 290-1; 
Erijnnt, ii. 549. Atkinson Fort was built at the village of Mundan before 
1858. In 1800 it was named Fort Bcrthold, and during that year was 
destroyed by the Sioux. Boiler, 37, 72, 358. On the Arkansas River, 
below the Fort Bent, were forts Aubrey, Dodge, and Zaran. Augusta Fort 
was on the right branch of the Susquehanna, opposite the mouth of tlie west 
branch. Fort St Augustine, for mention see Monette, i. 09; Dnjant, i. 213. 
Axacan Mission was founded in 1570, on the Rappahannock River, by u i^rty 



728 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

With cliiirches, charitable societies, schools, libra- 
ries, and local journals, British Columbia has always 

of priests, friars, and Indian converts, among them being P. Segura, head of 
the Jesuit mission of Florida, and Don Luis, brother of the cacique of Axacan 
or Jacan. The latter rclaps-d into savagism, and aided in the massacre of 
the party, of whom only one Indian boy was saved. Baker's Station, a 
stockade on the east side of the Ohio, at the head of Cresap Bottom, was 
built for protection against Indians in 1782. Monette, ii. 140. Barancas, a 
stockade built at Pensacola in J 795, and termed by the Spaniards Fort Saa 
Ferdinando de Bai'ancas, was blovin uj) by the British in 1815. Baton Ilouge, 
a post on the Mississippi, about half-'.vay between Red River and New Orleans, 
was surrendered to Spain in 1771). Bedford Fort stood about 101) miles south- 
east from Pittsburgh. Benton Fort was at the head of steam navigation on 
the Missouri, just above Nasia River. Bent Fort on the Arkansas, above 
Sand Creek, was occupied by Bent and St Vrain as a trading post. Among 
their hunters was Kit Carson. Fort St Bernard was built by La Salle in 
1GS5 at the mouth of a river which he termed the St Bernaril, west of the 
]\lis3issippi. Pratz, i. 5. Beverside Fort was built by a Dutchman about 
1G54, near the banks of the Schuylkill, but was not long in existence. Bryant, 
ii. 151. Big Falls, a trading post above St Anthony's Falls, on the Missis- 
sippi, remained standing in 1806. Black's Station stood, in 177G, oii (.he site 
o£ Abington, Va. Monette, ii. 82. Bledsoe's Station, in Cumberland River Val- 
ley, was founded about 1778. /'/., ii. 26G-6. Boonesborough Fort was founded 
by Daniel Eooae in 1775, on the site of the present town of Bojuc'sLDrough. 
Ky. Bowyer Fort, built at 2.Iobile Point in 1813, was so nameil af .er the first 
lieutenant in command. Brewerton Fort was at the west end of Oneida Lake. 
Brown's Station, six miles from Nashville, Tenn., was in existence in 1792, 
and Bryant's Station, a stockade fort on the south bank of Elk horn Creek, 
between Lexington and Marysville, in 1782. Buford Fort was being erected 
by the U. S. government in 13G3, on the site of the old Fort Williams trading 
post. Boiler, 42, 415. Bute Fort was built in 1765 on the north bank of Bayou 
Maucliac, near its junction with the Mississippi. Within a few hundred 
yards of it the Spainiards built a small fort, in 1770, for protection against 
smugglers. Monette, i. 403, 406. Cadot Fort stood, in 1776, at the south- 
east cad of Lake Superior, near the falls of ot ilarie. Cahokia, three miles 
below St Louis, was in 1770 a small post dependent on Fort Gage. Campus 
Martius, the rirst fortified settlement west of the Ohio, was built in 1788 at 
the mouth of the Muskingum River. Fort Carolina, named after Charles IX., 
was founded by Ribault in 1562, in South Carolina, a few miles above St 
Helena Sound. In 15G4 it was abandoned, and the same year a new one, 
with the same name, was built by a French colony, oa the south Ijank of May 
River, six leagues above its mouth. The latter was destroyed by the Spaniards 
in 1565. Cassimir Fort was built by the Dutch in 1G53 on a bluff in the Dela- 
ware, four miles below the mouth of the Christina, to take the place of Fort 
Nassau, which occupied the present site of Newcastle, Del. In 1654 it was 
captured by the Swedes and named Trefalldigheet (Trinity Fort). It was re- 
taken by the Dutch in 1G55. Bryant, ii. 153, 1;)6, 158. Chagwageman Mission, 
founded in 1660 by Father Mesnard on the southern shore of Lake Superior, 
but soon afterward abandoned, was i-eestablished in 1685 by Father AUouez. 
Bryant, ii. 501. Charles — of the three forts so named, one built in 1562 by 
lUbaidt, at Port Roy,.l, Fla, was soon afterward abandoned; another was 
built by the Spaniards at Pensacola in 1696, and a third stood, in 1795, above 
Council Blutfs. Loois and Glarke'n Travels, 33. Charlotte Fort (originally 
Fort Conde), built on the site of Mobile, controlled until 1813, when it was 
surrendered to the U. S. , a consi^ lerable region east of the Mississippi. Monette, 
i. 84, lOG; ii. 389. Charlotte Camp, ;i stockade enclosure with citadel, on the 
cast side of the Scioto, was built in 1774. Chartres Fort, founded in 1720, on 
the left bank of the Mississippi, and considered one of the strongest posts in 



FORTS. 729 

been abunclantl}^ supplied — soincwliat over-abun- 
dantly, as it would appear, in proportion to the popu- 

North Anjerica, was a century later a massive ruin. Cherokee, or Old Chero- 
kee Fort, 40 miles above the mouth of the Ohio, was in existence in 1778. 
Christina Fort was founded by the Swedish West India Co., in 1G3S, at tlie 
junction of Christina Creek with the Braudywine, near \Vilminj.'t()n. Bryant, 
i. 46(j-7. Fort St Clair, on the Miami, 20 miles north of Fort Hamilton, was 
built in 1791. Monette, ii. 490. Clairburne Fort, built in 1813 on Weather- 
ford lilufF, on the east side of Alabama lliver, 85 miles above Fort Stod- 
dard, was a strong stockade with three block-houses and a half-moon bat- 
tery. Clark Fort, named after the explorer, was in 1858 a dilapidated 
trading post on the Missouri, near tlie lliccarce village, and belonged to 
the American Fur Co. Boiler, .S3. Conception IMissiou was founded among 
tlie Illinois in April 1675. Shea's Alissins., 56 Concord Fort was built by the 
Spaniards on the site of the village of Vidalia, on the west bank of the Mis- 
sissippi. Monette, i. 540. Crawford Camp, on the Cliattahoochy, ju=t above 
the Florida line, was established in 1816. Creve-Cocur Fort, built bj' La 
Salle in 1679, near the head of Illinois River, and so named on account of the 
financial misfortunes that overtook the founder at this time, appears to have 
been abandoned the same or the following year. Bryant, ii. 511; Pralz, i. 5. 
Cumberland Fort was built by the Englisli about 1754, on Will's Creek, near 
the present town of Cumberland, Md. Defiance Fort was a strong stockade, 
built in 1694 at the junction of Au Glaize and Maumco Rivers. Monette, ii. 
304, 308. Denham Station, near Nashville, Tcnn., was iu existence in 1792. 
Detroit was in 1767 a lai'gc stockaded village with about eighty houses. 
Carver's Travels, 152. Dover Foit, N. H., contained, in 1689, five garrison 
houses, into which all the inhabitants witlidrew at night. In 1754 the Eng- 
lish began to erect a fort and trading jiost at the 'forks,' a point of land just 
above the junction of the AUeghauj' and Mouongahcla, where now stands Pitts- 
burgh; but they were driven off by French under Contrecoeur, who at once 
built a fort and named it Du Quesne, after tlie governor of Canada. In 1758 
it was attacked by the English, when the French set lire to it and fled, the 
formor naming it Fort Pict. Easley Station, at the forks of the Alabama 
and Tombigbee, was built in 18i;J. i']dward Fort was on the left bank of the 
Hudson, near its northern boixl. Ellsworth Fort was on the Smoky Hill 
Fork of the Kansas. Elfsborg or Elsingborg Fort, built by the Swedes at 
the mouth of Salem Creek, "Md, was abandoned about 1652, when the 
Dutch erected a fort near its site. Bryant, ii. 152. Ely and Curtis' trading 
post wasiu 1821 on the Missouri, near the mouth of the Kansas. Beehvonrlh, 
31. Mission St Esprit was near to the western corner of Lake Superior. 
Estill Station was on the south side of Kentucky River. Monette, ii. 124._^ 

Fairfield Fort, in Maine, was in existence in 1846. Fanners' Castle Sta- 
tion, a stockade with block house on the Ohio, twelve miles below the mouth 
of the Muskingum, was erected iu 1789. Monel'e, ii. 247-8. Fincastle Fort, 
afterward named Fort Henry, on the east bank of the Ohio, near the site of 
Wheeling, was built in 1774. ii. 90, 95. Finley's trading post, in the present 
Clarke co. in Kentucky, was in existence in 1769. Florida Fort was loundcd 
in ISOl, a few miles above Fort Stoddard, on Mobile River. Florida Mission 
was a Franciscan establishment in central Florida, in existence in 1584 or 
earlier. Floyd Station, on liear-grass Creek, about six miles from the falls 
of the Ohio, was established in 1775. Fort St Francis was built in 1739 by 
the French, on the west bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of the St 
Francis. 

Gadsden Fort, on the Appalachicola, below Fort Scott, was in existence 
iu 1818. Monette, i. 93. Gage Fort, a stockade on the cast bank of the Kas- 
kaskia, opposite the town of that name, was, after 1772, the headquarters i.f 
the commandant of Illinois. Georgo Fort was liuilt on the southern extremity 
of Lake George. Fort King George was erected by the English on the Alt*- 



730 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

lation, estimated in 1886 at not more than GO, 000. 
At the capital there was a Jewish synagogue; the 

maha, Ga, about 1732. Bryant, ii. 560. Gloucester House was on the Albany 
River, near Osnaburgh House. Harmons' Jour., ma]). Good Hope Fort was 
built in 1633 by the Dutch West India Co., on the present site of Hartford, 
Conn. Bryant, i. 5'17. Gore Fort was erected in 1774 at the mouth of Hock- 
ing River. Monette. i. 381. Gosnold Fort, on Elizabeth Island, Mass., was 
built in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, who, under instructions from the earl 
of Southampton, examined the coast southward from Cape Cod. Bryant, i. 
262 et seq. Gottenburg, or New Gottenburg, was a fort built by the Swedes 
in the 17th century, on Tinicum Island, Del. After being captured by the 
Dutch in 1655, it was known as Kottenberg Island. Gratiot Fort lay, in 
1835, at the south end of Lake Huron, about 75 miles from Detroit. Green 
Bay Mission, in Wisconsin, was opened in 1660. Monette, i. 121. Greenville 
Fort was built near the present town of Greenville, 0. Id., ii. 207. Hallett 
Fort was on Liard River, west of the great bend. Harmar Fort, built in 1785 
at the mouth of the Muskingum, was the first U. S. military post in Ohio. 
Monette, ii. 218, 223. Harrod Station was a military post founded about 
1774, near the present Harrodsburg, Ky. Id., i. 364. Hawn Fort was on 
Gullet Bluff, near the Tombigbee. Hayes' Station, near Nashville, Tenn., 
was in existence in 1702. Henry House was near and east from Moose Lake; 
Hoy's Station, on the Ohio frontier, was some 20 miles from Upper Blue 
Licks. Mission St Iguace was built on Michilimackinac Strait in 1670, and 
near to it the Hurons built a palisade. Monette, i., map 1; Shea's Mlssiss. Ixi. 
Ignatius. St, or St Imigoe, as the common corruption is, was a Jesuit mission 
founded in Md in lG4o. Bryant, i. 407, 512-13. Jackson Fort was built in 
1814 on the site of old Fort Tallassee, near the mouth of the Coosa. Monette, 
ii. 425. James PLiver had on its banks two forts in 1670, and tho Potomac, 
Rappahannock, and York one each. Jefferson Fort, built in 1701, was 20 
miles north of Fort St Clair, and about from Greenville, 0. Joseph Fort was 
at the south end of Lake Michigan. Kaskaskia, about five miles from the 
mouth of Kaskaskia River, and the oldest settlement in the Illinois country, 
was in 1770 a missionary station, containing a Jesuit college. Monette, i. 162, 
166-7. Kenhawa, at the mouth of Great Kenhawa River, was, in 1776, a 
military post, in command of Capt. Arbuckle, and then known as the 'Point.' 
Kennebec River; the Popham colony, arriving in 1607, in the ship Gift of God, 
built here a fort mounting 12 guns. Labarge Fort was a little above Fort 
Benton, on the Missouri. La Baye Fort was at the southern extremity of 
Green Bay. Laurens Fort, a military post, was built in 1778, on the inght 
bank of the Tuscarawas, just below the mouth of Sandy Creek. Monette, ii. 
107, 218. Le Boeuf Fort was built by the French in 1753 on Lake Le Bouef, 
15 miles from Presque Isle. Leech Lake Post was a block-house belonging 
to the N. W. Co. Liard Fort was on Liard River, above the Nahanni. Ligo- 
nier Fort, 60 miles east of Fort Pitt, was in existence in 1 763. Lisa Fort, a 
trading post belonging to Manuel Lisa, of the Missouri Fur Co., was about 
five miles below Omaha. Logan Fort, in Lincoln co., Ky, near the Ken- 
tucky Pdver, was founded in 1775. London Fort was a stockade post built 
by the English in 1757, on the north bank of Little Tennessee River, on the 
present site of Fort Winchester, Va. Lookout Fort was built on the Mis- 
souri, near Council Bluffs. Beckwourth, 85. Fort St Louis lay, in 1719, near 
the mouth of Mobile River. Pratz, i. 138. Another fort of that name was 
founded, between 1680 and 1683, near the junction of Illinois River and Lake 
Peoria. Monette, i. 135, 146. A third was built by La Salle, in 1685, on Me- 
tagordaBay, Texas. Bryant, ii. 517-18. Madison Fort, Iowa, was established 
in 1808 as a frontier post. Monette, ii. 561. Manchester Fort, with its stock- 
ade, was founded in 1790, 12 miles above Limestone, in the Va military dis- 
trict. Id., ii. 314. Mission St Marie, founded in 1669 among the Chippewas, 
was the oldest settlement in Mich. Shea's Mississ., xlvii. St Mark was 



FORTS. 731 

presbyterians were represented by seven, and the 
methodist church of Canada by sixteen ministers, while 

in 1818 a post six miles above the mouth of Appalachy River. Monelte, i. 94. 
Martin Station, on Stoner fork of Licking River, was destroyed by the 
English in 1G70. Massac Fort was a stockade built by the French, in 17")0, 
on the right bank of the Ohio, about 40 miles above its mouth. Mateo, Fort 
San, was erected by the Spaniards soon after their capture of Fort Caroline, 
in IoGj, and probably close to its ruins. Bryant, i. 214. McAfee's Station 
was in 17S1 a frontier post near the Ohio. Momtte, ii. 121. McClellan's 
Station lay, in 177G, on the north fork of the Elklioin, near the present vil- 
lage of Georgetown, Ky. McConnell's Station was in 1782 near the town 
of Lexington. McDowell Fort was on the Rio Verde branch of tiie Salado, 
near the mouth of the former. M'Int jsh Fort was built in 1778, on the north 
baidv of the Ohio, near the mouth of liig Beaver Creek, Pa. Fort St Michael, 
near Pensacola, was in existence in 1815. Of the numerous forts in the 
state of Michigan, and in the ncighborh'>od of the great lakes, most of them 
erected by the II. B. Co., may be mentioned the following: The fort of the 
Ikliamis was built by La Salle in 1G79 as a trading post, on St .Joseph River, 
near its entrance into Lake Micliigan. Fort Laurimie, on the head waters of 
Croat Miami River, was in existence in 1745. In 1752 the French had a 
stockaded trading post on Mad River, a tributary of the Great Miami. A 
British post named Miami, on the north bank of Maumee Ptivcr, about two 
miles below the rapids, was built before 17G3. In 1783 it was abandoned, 
and in 1793 rcoccupicd. Columbia, a settlement with block hcmse, was com- 
menced in 1788, on the north bank of the Ohio, three miles below the Little 
Miami. Fort Hamilton, on the Miami, 20 miles from Fort Washington, was 
in 1791 an advanced post. Fort Deposit was built in 1794 as a military store- 
house, near the head of Maumee Rapids, seven miles from Fort Miami, ^fo• 
nette, llkt. Dkcov. and SMkment, i. 134; ii. 214, 218, 249, 257, 290, 234. 
Fort Mackinaw stood on the south side of tlie strait of Michilimackiuac, be- 
tween lakes Huron and Michigan, and was a repository and place of departure 
for the upper and lower country. The stockade enclosed nearly two acres 
and about 30 houses, and was garrisoned by about 95 men, the bastions being 
protected by brass guns. In 17G3 it was captured by Indians. Id., i. 330. 
In 17GG Fort Michilimackiuac, at the junction of lakes Huron and Michigan, 
enclosed by a strong stockade, and gannsoned by about 100 men, was the 
most remote of English posts. The name signifies a tortoise, and applies 
probably to an island a few miles to the north-cast, which in appearance 
resembles a tortoise. The place was captured by Pontiac in 17l!3, but was re- 
stored the following year. Carver, ix. 19. Miro Post, on the Washita Biver, 
was built in 1795, on the site of the town of Monroe. Mohclte, i. 488 9. 
Mitchell Fort, on the Chattahoochy, Ga, was in existence in 1815, and Mont- 
gomery Fort, near Pensacola, in 1818. Nashville was a trading post ei-ected 
by the French near the present city of Nashville about 1778. Moiieltc, ii. 2(iG. 
Nassau Fort, a large trading post erected by Hendrick Christiansen, a Dutch 
captain, in 1G14, on Castle Island, near Albany, was the first one built on the 
Hudson Bivei. Bryant, i. 359. Natchitoches, on R 'd River, was occupied 
in 1712 as a trading post, and in 1717 as a military post. MoDetle, ii. 4G0. 
Necessity Fort was built by the English in 1754, a few miles west of^ Union- 
town, but was surrendered the same year to the French. Nelson Fort was 
built in 1780 on the Ohio, near Bear-grass Creek, and Newberry, a settlement 
with block house, in 17S9 on the same river. 22 miles below the Muskingum. 
Niagara Fort was built l)y the French in 172G, near the mouth of Niagara 
River. Old Fort, or Redstone Old Fort, on the Monongahcla, was nauK-.l 
Brownsville when the latter town was laid out in 1785. Monetlc. ii. 194. 
Orleans Fort was built by the French in 1720, on an island above the mouth 
of Osage River. Oswego Fort, at the mouth of Oswego River, was c.ii.tured 
by the^French in 1750. Ouiatoaou or Ouatauon Fort stood, in 17G7, on the 



732 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

the baptist and reformed episcopal churches were en- 
i2!'a2'ed ill oro'aniziuo; various branches throuo;hout the 

left bank of the Wabash, near the junction of its sources. Panmure Fort, at 
Natchez, surrendered to the Spaniards in 1779. Monette, i. 438. Pembina 
Fort was on Red River, near the mouth of the Pembina. Pensacola Fort was 
captured by the Frencli in 1710, and soon -tfterward recaptured by the Span- 
iards, and again captured by the French. Praiz, i. 93 et seq. It was occu- 
pied by the Americans in 1818. Fort St Peter stood, in 1725, near the 
inoi;th of the Yazoo River. Monette, i. 223. Pickei-ing Fort was near Memphis, 
below Wolf River. Pierre Fort, on the Missouri, 1,"_00 miles above St Louis, 
was formerly one of the largest forts in the Sioux counti'y, but in 1866 no 
vestige of it remained. Boiler, 29, 41 7. On hearing of the massacre in Virginia, 
in 1022, the pilgrim fathers built a fort within the palisades that surrounded 
the nine houses then comprising the town of Plymouth. Presqu' Isle was 
on the southern shore of Lake Erie, near Presqu' Isle Bay. Primeau Fort was 
in 1858 a dilapidated post on the ]\Iissouri, near the village of the Riccarees. 
Boiler, 33. Prince George Fort, about 110 miles east of Fort London, was in 
existence in 1757. Monette, i. 314. Pueblo Fort, a trading posi: at the junc- 
tion of the Fontaine qui Boi;it and Arkansas, was built in 1842 by a company 
of traders. Scenes Rocky Mis, 172. Recovery Fort w'as built in 1794, on the 
scene of St Clair's defeat, between St Mary River and Greenville, 0. Mo- 
nette, ii. 300-3. Red Cedar Lake Post, belonging to the N. W. Co., is laid 
dovvu on Lewis and Clarke's map. Rice Fort was on Buffalo Creek, about 12 
miles north of Wheeling. Monette, ii. 140. Robertson Station, founded in 
1780, near the site of Nashville, afterward became the centre of the Cumber- 
land settlements. Rosalie Fort was built by the French in 1716, on the biutf 
where Natchez now stands. Fort St Rose, near Pensacola, was in existence 
in 1815. 

Sackville (the old French Fort St Vincent) lay, in 1770, on the left bank 
of the Wabash, 150 miles above its mouth. Monette, i. 413. Sandusky Fort 
•was built on the site of Sandusky City. Saybrook Fort was built about 
1635; for mention, see Bryant, i. 5,i0, 555. Sclilosser Fort was on the right 
bank of the Niagara, opposite Grand Island. Scott Fort, on the Georgia fron- 
tier, was in existence in 1816. Monette, i. 91, 93. Simon, Mission St, was 
located, in 1670, at Great Manitounin Island, Lake Huron. Id., i. map, p. 1. 
South River Post was built in 1624 by .settlers belonging to the Dutch West 
India Co. They soon afterward abandoned it for Manhattan. Bryant, i. 
306-7. Stanwix Fort, also known as Fort Schuyler, was on the right bank of 
the Mohawk, near its source. Station Prairie, on the Scioto, was built in 
1796, near the site of the town of Chillicothe. Monette, ii. 315. Steuben Fort 
stood in 1782 near the falls of the Ohio. Stoddard Fort was founded in 1801, 
on Mobile River near the Spanish line, and Strother Fort on the Coosa, near 
Ten Islands, about 1813. Talassee Fort, six miles above the mouth of the 
Coosa, and built on the site of Fort Toulouse, the latter being erected in 1714, 
was reconstructed iu 1814 as Fort Jackson. Monette, i, 213, 415. Thompson's 
Creek Post, a small fort iu west Fla, was surrendered to the Spaniards in 
1779. Tombigby Fort was built by the French in 1736 on the river of that 
name, about 250 miles above the site of Mobile. Uuion Fort, on the Mis- 
souii, six miles above the Yellowstone, and in 1830 the headquarters of the 
American Fur Co., was one of the oldest and best equipped of the company's 
forts. Boiler, 9, 43; Beckwourth, 360. Valle's Post, on the Missouri, just 
above Cheyenne, was occupied in 1804 by the French trader Valle. Lewis and 
Clarke, 70, Venango Fort was built by the French in 1753, on the site of 
Franklin, Pa. Monette, i. 168, 171. Vincent, Post St, on the Wabash, some 
distance above White River, was in existence in 1745. Id., i. map. Washing- 
ton Fort was founded in 1789, on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of tlie Lick- 
ing. Monette, ii. 251-2. Washita Post, built in 1713, on the site of the town 
of Monroe, was in existence in 1760. Wayne Fort, named after Gen. Wayne, 



CHURCHES. 733 

province. ^^ Two years before there were five catholic 
and other episcopal dioceses, with nearly sixty clergy- 
men.^" At Victoria there were three hospitals,^' an 
orphans' home,^"* several benevolent societies,^'* and the 

was built in 1794 at the confluence of St Mary's and St Joseph's rivers. 
Weatherforcl was in ]S13 a stronj,hold and town near tl)e soutli bank of tlie 
Alabama, in a swamp known as Ecchanachaca, or Holj' Ground. Williams 
tort, three miles below the Yellowistoije, was moved in ISoS 80 miles above 
on the Missouri. Boiler, 42, Winchester, on the site of a stockade tort built 
in 1 730 in the valley between tlie Blue Ridge and Alleghany ranges, vxas 
declared a military fort in 1757. William Henry Fort was built in 17o5, on 
tlie southern extremity of Lake George. A fort of the same name, situated 
at Pemaguid, Me, was demolished by the Frencli in 1G90. Bryant, ii. 449. 
Mission St Francis Xavier was founded on Green Bay, Illinois Lake, in 1U70. 
Shea's Mississ., 11, xi., vii.; ihiutte, i. map, p. 1. 

Without venturing to present the reader with bibliogi-apbical notices of 
tlie various authors from whom this r6sum(5 has been written, it may not be 
out of place to notice a manuscript handed tome at Victoria in 187S, and 
entitled Forts and Fort Life in iS'e.w Cak'douia, under JhuUoii's Bay Company 
Bcijhne, by P. N. ComjUon, MS. In a few pages Mr Compton has condensed 
more information as to the subject-matter of his manuscript than can be 
found elsewhere in such brief space. Landing at Victoria in 1859, in the 
service of the H. B. Co., Mr Compton was ordered to Fort Simpson, where, 
as he says, ' the daily routine was to get up at six o'clock, dig potatoes, cliop 
wood, clean furs, and shovel snow.' After three years' service he travelled 
in Europe, principally in Servia and Turkey, returnjjig to Victoria in 1S7G. 
In The Hudson's Bui/ Tci'ritories and Vancouver's I'and, ivith an ex/iosi'ion 
if the Chartered Rl<jhts, Conduct, and Policy of the lion. Hudson's Bay Cor- 
poration, by R. M. Martin (London, 1849), tlie author gives a good general 
description of the geography and physical features of the company's territory 
in the north-west, together witli information as to site and conditii>u of their 
forts and stations, iluch of the work is devoted to the constitution and 
working of the corporation at home and abroad, their policy and system being 
contrasted with those of American fur-traders. Most of the leading aiitliori- 
ties then extant have been consulted, among them being parliamentary pa- 
pers, the reports of missionary societies, the oliicial papers deposited at the 
colonial office, the board of trade, and the admiralty, and the se\ eial charters 
granted to the company. The book is fairly and impartially written, tliough 
fconiew hat tedious and uninteresting in style. Facing the frontispiece is a 
map showing the location of the company's forts and stations throughout the 
territory. 

^^ There vi^ere also three branches of the upper Canada auxiliary of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. B. C. Inform, for Emiijrants, 5(J-7. 

^* In 1884 Archbishop Seghers of Oregon was appointed to the episcopacy 
of V. I. and Alaska. Sac. Record- Union, March 18, 1884. 

"'Tlie Royal hospital, the expenditure of whicli averaged, between 1876 
and 1886, about $5,500 a year, the Maison de Sante Franyaise, and St Joseph's, 
the last being in charge of the sisters of St Ann. 

■^*'J'lie B. C. Protestant Orphans' Home, established in 1S72, and of which, 
in 1885, A. A. Green was president. B. O. JJire'L, 1884-5, 91. 

^* Among them may be mentioned the B. C. Benevolent Soeiety, which 
disbursed about $500 in ciiarities. tiie insignificance of tiio amount due rather 
to the small number of deserving poor than to lack of funds. In the supple- 
mentary estimates for 1885-G, the sum of 6250 was voted in aid of this soci- 
ety. Slat. B. C, 1885, 124. The St Andrew's Society, organized in 1860, 
and the Caledonian Benevolent Association, in ISGil. were consolidated iu 
1870 into one association, named the Sr Amb-ew's and Caledoni.m .Society. 
There were also several secret societies, includiii'' the Far West Lodge of the 



734 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

inevitable Young Men's Christian Association and 
Young Women's Christian Temperance Union. At 
New Westminster, Nanaimo, Yale, Cariboo, and else- 
where, there were also institutions for the care of the 
sick, for mutual aid, and for charitable purposes similar 
to those in operation at the capital. *° 

Although an act for the establishment of public 
schools W9-; passed by the legislature of Vancouver 
Island as early as 18G5, and by that of the united 
colonies in 1869," it was not until several years later 
that provision was made for an efficient educational 
sj^stem. In the estimates laid before the former for 
1866, the sura of $15,000 was included for school pur- 
poses; but on August 31st of this year the assembly 
of Vancouver practically ceased to exist. At that 
date no appropriation had been made by the legisla- 
ture, and thereafter none could be made. The chief 
magistrate therefore informed the superintendent of 
education that, as there were no means at his disposal, 
he could not further guarantee the pa^anent of rent, 
salaries, or other items. Thus the responsibility of 
maintaining the public schools was thrown on the 
board of education, and for several months they were 
maintained by that body under some arrangement 
unknown, as the colonial secretary remarked, to the 
executive.^"^ In a supplementary message, dated Feb- 
ruary 27, 1867, Governor Seymour states that on the 
island an attempt had been made to lay the burden 

Knights of Pythias, the Victoria Lodge of the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, the American Legion of Honor, the Independent Order of Chosen 
Friends, Dominion Lodge No. 4, and Columbia Lodge No. 2, of the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd-Fellows. 

*" At New Westminster was the Royal Columbia Hospital, of which a com- 
mittee appointed to inquire into its condition in 1883 reported favorably. See 
Sess. Papers, B. C, ISSi, 283-4. There were also branches of the A. 0. U. W. 
and Ancient Order of Foresters. Of the Nanaimo Hospital, J. Pawson was 
president in 1885, and in this town were also lodges of the A. 0. F. and A. 
O. U. W. For masonic statistics of B. C, see Proceedings Grand Lod<je of 
Ntw Mcx., 1879, 55. 

^^The latter, which was entitled the Common School ordinance, 1SC9, 
zepealed the Common School act, 1865, of the former colony of Victoria. 
This was again altered by the Common School Amendment ordinance, 1870. 
For text of both, see the revised Laios B. V., 1871, 392-6, 434-7. 

*'^Jour. Legisl. Council, B. C, 1867, app. xi. 



SCHOOLS. 735 

of expense for educational purposes on the community, 
while he was compelled to acknowledge that on the 
mainland the population was yet too sparse and scat- 
tered to admit of any regular and organized system. 
The state, he considered, might aid the parent, but 
ought not to relieve him of his natural responsibility, 
"else it might happen that the promising mechanic 
might be marred, and the country overburdened with 
half-educated professional politicians, or needy hano-- 
ers-on of government." But unto Governor Seymour 
was not vouchsafed, as we have seen, the wisdom of 
a Solomon, and his views must be accepted for what 
they are w^orth. Under his administration the con- 
dition of the public schools was deplorable. Between 
September 1866 and the close of 1868 their total 
cost in the several districts of Vancouver was about 
$15,000, of which sum more than $4,000 remain-r^d un- 
paid at the latter date, mainl}^ on account of teachers' 
salaries, although there w^ere but five teachers in all 
Vancouver, none of them receiving more than $75, 
and the average being $65, per month. During 1867 
and 1868 six out of the eleven schools established 
under the act of 1865 were discontinued for want of 
funds,^^ and of the 425 children receiving instruction 
carl}'' in the former year, nearly one half were turned 
adrift, while to several of the teachers discharged or 
suspended there were still due sums varying from 
$109 to $253, and to all of those retained from $215 
to $588. 

In 1869 matters w^ere but little improved. During 
that year only twelve public schools were maintained 
in the. several districts of British Columbia, seven 
being on the island,*^ and live on the mainland.*^ A 
grant of $10,376 in all was made by the government, 

"The Esqnimalt, South Saanich, Cowichan, Cedar Hill, Salt Spring, and 
the central school for girls at V^ictoria. Those still in operation were the 
central school for boys and the district school, Victoria, tlie Craigdower, Lake, 
and N.inaimo schools. Sess. Papers, in /t/., 1SG9, ap[). vii. 

"Tl.use mentioned in the previous note, and one at Saanich, and one at 
Cedar Hill. /(/., 1S70, app. ix. 

*'One each a.t Fbw Westminster, Langley, Yale, Lytton, and Sappertop. 



73S settleme:n^ts, missions, and education. 

of which $5,900 was devoted to the payment of 
teachers' salaries/^ The entire amount received from 
local aid was but $330. In six out of the twelve dis- 
tricts no local aid was voted, and from three others 
no returns were received. The average attendance 
at each school was less than 30, and at all the schools 
about 350,*'^ out of a school population probably little 
short of 2,000. No regular accounts were kept by 
the local boards. Teachers were appointed without 
examination as to fitness, and sometimes without 
inquiry as to character. There was no inspection, as 
there were no funds wherewith to pay inspectors' sal- 
aries, and there were no resfulations as to the manas^e- 
ment other than those framed by the local boards. 

In this condition, or very nearly so, the educational 
affairs of the colony and province remained until 
1872, when an act was passed providing that a board 
of education should be appointed for the province, 
defining the duties of such board, and also those of 
school trustees, school-teachers, and the superintend- 
ent of schools, and authorizino: the lieutenant-Qfover- 
nor to create additional school districts.*^ After this 
date there was a marked improvement, and in 1874 
we find 1,245 names enrolled on the various registers, 
or more than double the number contained in 1872, 
provision having now being made for annual in- 
spections and for the examination of teachers.^'' For 

*^ For each school $500, except the one at Sapperton, for which $400 waa 
appropriated. 

^'At tea of them the total attendance gives an average for the year of 296, 
and from others no returns were received, fbid. 

*^FoT text, see Stat. B. C, 1872, 39-40. By this act the ordinances of 
1S69 and 1870 were repealed. In the report of a select committee on the 
act of 1872, it was recommended that compulsory education be made general 
throughout the province, taking as a precedent the compulsory clauses of t!ie 
Ontario school act, vvliereby all children between seven and twelve j'ears of 
age were required to 'attend some school or be otherwise educated for four 
months in the year.' 

*^ The superintendent reports a scarcity of efficient teachers, only 8 out of 
30 employed in the department diiring the school year ending July 31, 1874, 
having undergone a regular training. Many of them failed to pass, or did 
not attempt to pass, the teachers' examination, as will be seen in Jonr. Legist. 
Ass. B. C, 1875, Go-9, where is a copy of the examination papers. The ques- 
tions put were exceedingly simple. A full report of the superintendent for 
this year will be found in Id., 1875, 14-73. 



PUBLIC ilEASURES. 737 

the year ending the 31st of July, 1876, there was a 
school population of more than 2,500,^" of which 1,G85 
attended the public schools during a portion of 1875, 
the average attendance for all parts of the province 
being 984, while there were still 385 children who did 
not receive instruction of any kind. During the five 
preceding 3^ears the number of schools liad increased 
from 14 to 45, and of teachers from 13 to 50, tlie 
average cost being $22.38 per capita of the pupils." 

On the 19th of May, 1876, an act was approved 
for the maintenance of public schools, whereby each 
male resident of the province was required to pay an 
annual tax of three dollars for educational purposes." 
On the same date the Consolidated Public School 
act, 1876, received the governor's signature. The 
latter was repealed by the Public School act, 1879,^^ 
and after some further legislation,^* the laws then in 
force were consolidated in the Public School act, 
1885, wherein there were no salient features, except 
tliat clergymen, of whatever denomination, were in- 
eligible for appointment as superintendent, teacher, 
or trustee, and that all children from seven to twelve 
years of age were required to attend one of the public 
or private schools, or otherwise to receive an educa- 
tion, for not less than six months in the year.^^ 

Turning to the thirteenth annual report of the 
superintendent of education for the school year ending 
July 31, 1884, we find 57 public schools in operation,®'' 

^"The number actually reported to the superintendent was 2,4S4. Fifth 
ann. rept of the supt of educ, in Sess. Papers, B. C, 1 877. 87. 

*' For full text of supt's report, see A/., 87-l'i9. At this date hiu;h schools 
had been established at Victoria and New Westminster; but wiSi the ex- 
ception of tliese two cities and South Cowichan, uone of the settlements cuu- 
tained more than one public school buikling. 

'=>''Stat. B. C, IS70, 111-12. For petition signed by Bishop Seghers and 
G3 others, protesting against all taxation for the support of non-sectariau 
schools, and particularly against this special tax, see Svsn. Paj*er.i, B. C, 
1S7G, 725. 

^^Stat. B. C, 1879, 111-23. It was first amended by acta of 1877 and 
1S7S, for copies of which, see /cZ., 1877, 111; 1S7S, 71-2. 

^^Amcmlingtheactof 1879. Id., 1882,77; ISSl, 131-5. 

" Under penalty of line, not exceeding §5 for tlie first wilful olTencc, and 
$10 for each subsequent oflence. For text of act, see A/., ISS5, 125 tl. 

MOf vhich 49 were common schools (this being the phrase usually applied 
iii T. liUIT. Coi.. 47 



738 SETTLEMENTS, MISSIONS, AND EDUCATION. 

with 75 teachers and 3,420 pupils enrolled, the aver- 
age daily attendance being 1,809 — an increase of 426 
over the preceding year, and of 1,234 over the scho- 
lastic year 1872-3. The total expenditure for educa- 
tion proper in 1883-4 was $58,361,^' the sums appro- 
priated for buildings, repairs, insurance, and similar 
items being considered a portion of the government 
assets. The actual outlay for all educational purposes 
was $66,655.15, and the amount voted in the estimates 
for the year $68,415, leaving an unexpended balance 
of $1,759.85. At no period in the history of the pro- 
vincial schools had so much interest been shown in 
the cause of education,^^ and at no period was the 
standard of education so high. Among the six per- 
sons to whom were awarded teachers' certificates of 
the first grade in the first class, at the examination 
held in July 1884, were four university graduates,^^ 
although the highest salary paid was but $110,^° and 
the average salary $60.64, per month. 

While the public schools of British Columbia com- 
pared not unfavorably, considering her scant popula- 
tion, with those of her sister provinces and of the 
neighboring states and territories, it must be admitted 
that as yet her educational system was but in its in- 
fancy. As late as 1886 there was no universit}^ in 
existence, and there was not even a normal school 
or a teachers' institute. Much, however, had been 
accomplished, and at moderate expense.^^ 

in the home country to what are termed public schools in the United States), 
7 were graded schools, and one a high school (at Victoria). Sess. Papers, B. 
C\, ISSo, 151, 169. 

^'It is worthy of note that of this sum $50,762.55 was expended for 
teachers' salaries, while only $2,988.67 was appropriated for tlie education 
office, and |4, 610.02 for incidental expenses, inchuliug rent. 

^^The total number of visits to the various schools in the province increased 
from 2,922 in 1882-3 to 9,486 in 1SS3-4. 

^*0f whom two were granted renewals, the holder of a first-class certifi- 
cate having the privilege of renewal without further examination. Thei'e 
were three classes, and to each class tvco grades. 

^''To the principal of the high school at Victoria, the principal of the boys' 
school at New Westminster, where the high school had now been abolished, 
receiving $100 -per mouth. For text of report, see Id., 1885, 151-236. 

"In the report of a select committee, appointed in 1881, it v.as recom- 
mended that a tuition fee of $5 per quarter should be charged for scholars in 



NEWSPAPERS. 739 

"This," said Amor de Cosmos, handing me a green- 
paper-covered file of the Victoria Gazette, printed be- 
tween June 25 and July 25, 1858, "was the first 
newspaper published in Victoria." In December of 
that year was issued the first number of the British 
Colonist,^"' continued until the autumn of 1863 by 
the ex-governor of British Columbia."^ In 1885 the 
Daily and Weelly Colonist, established in 1858 byD. 
W. Higgins, who was still the proprietor at the former 
date, was one of the prominent newspapers of the 
province, among others published at the capital being 
the Daily and Weekly Standard, Times, and Daily 
Evening Post. At New Westminster was issued the 
British Columbian and the Mainland Guardian, at 
Nanaimo the Free Press,^^ at Kamloop the Inland 
Sentinel,^^ and at several of the mainland interior 
towns were weekly or semi-weekly publications. '^'^ The 
Mechanics' Literary Institute at Victoria contained 
in 1886 about 7,000 well-selected volumes, and at 
New Westminster, at Clinton, and other of the main- 
land settlements, were smaller libraries, all of them 
well supplied with periodical literature. 

the high school. Jour. Legisl. Asft. B. C, 18S1, 72. For other reparts of the 
superintendent of education and of committees on public schools, see Sens. 
Papers, B. C, 1878, 7-68; 1879, 179-239; ISSO, lu9-227; ISSl, 447-9, 435- 
64; 1882, 249-322; 1883, 183-270; 1884, 91-156; Jour. Le'jid. Ass. B. C, 1877, 
app. xxvL; 18S0, app. iii. 

'^The last issue of the Victoria Gcr.ef/e was dated June 23, 1859. Durini,' 
1858 was published the Vancouver Island Gazette, by Frederic Marriott of the 
Newfi Letter. It passed througli eight or ten numbers, and enriched its owner, 
by his well-known process of money-making, to tiio amount of some SS,UOO. 
He was then advised to remove. A Frencli newspaper, published by Paul de 
Gara, expired almost still-born. In tliis year also was published for a few- 
weeks tlio North American. 

*^^ Meanwhile a newspaper was published named the Press. Then fol- 
lowed the Evening Express, Prices Current, and other minor publications, 
some fifteen in all up to 18G5. De Cosmos' Govt, MS., 3. 

6»A semi- weekly, established in 1874 by George Norris. B. C. Direct., 
18S4-5, 119. 

«^ A weekly paper, formerly published at Yale. Id., 1884-5, 202. 

68 For list of publications in 1878, see PetlinijiWa Neicspaijer Direct., 255. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 
18S0-1S86. 

AoRICnLTTTRAL AeEAS— PuBLIC LaNDS— StOCK-RAISING— FrUITS — FISHERIES 

Salmon-canning — Manufactures — Gold-mining — Coal-mining — 
The Alaska Boundary — Exports and Imports — Comparison with 
Other Provinces— Banking— Insurance — Shipping — Inland Navi- 
gation — Revenue and Expenditure — Public Debt — Comparison of 
Customs Returns— Elements of Prosperity— Biographical— Biblio- 
graphical. 

In 1886 British Columbia was not adapted to any 
large immigration of poor families. Abundant as 
were her resources, there was lack of funds wherewith 
to develop them; and for persons without means, 
excepting laborers and perhaps a limited number of 
mechanics, there were few openings.^ But for men 
possessing even a small capital there were few more 
profitable investments than a cereal farm or cattle 
rancho within her borders. As an ao^ricultural re^^ion 
the mainland is divided into sections by the Coast 
Range, the interior having a climate of extremes, the 
coast a mild and equable temperature, and the south- 

Uu 1861 immigrants were in demand in B. C. S. F. BtiUetin, Oct. 28, 1861. 
In 1867 the legislative council recommended that the department of lands and 
works, in addition to its other functions, be used as an immigration depart- 
ment, and that in tlie absence of power to make free grants of land to bona 
Jide settlers, 'a bounty be offered to actual settlers equivalent to the pre- 
emption price of the land tliat they may be liable to pay under the land ordi- 
nance.' Jour. Legi4. Council, 18G7, 66. For immigration statistics in 1869, 
see U. S. Bureau of StatUtks, no. 2, 1879-80, 175, 88. In 1881 there was a 
scarcity of laborers. S. F. Bullp.tin, Oct. 24, 1881. While the construction 
of the C. P. R. R. was in progi-ess, laborers and mechanics could always find 
empkyment at fair rates. In the first annual report of the immigration 
agents for 1883, it is stated that about 3,000 Chinese arrived in the province 
during that year, and some 5,850 white persons. Hess. Papers, B. C, 1884, 
297. 

(740) 



ATTRACTIONS FOR SETTLERS. 741 

ern portioii, with its wide, trougli-liko valleys, requir- 
ing irrigation during the summer months.'^ 

Though containing large tracts of good arable land, 
the entire province is better adapted for stock-raising 
than for the production of crops. Even of the delta 
lands of the Eraser, with their rich clay loams, where 
forty bushels of wheat or barley to the acre and sixty 
of oats were no uncommon yield, but a small portion 
was under cultivation as late as 1884.^ In the south- 
ern portion of the mainland interior, east of the 
Frazer, were 500 square miles available for agricultu- 
ral ])urposes, the most valuable portion being in the 
Chilliwhack municipality, where an average crop gives 
about twenty bushels of wheat and forty of oats or bar- 
ley to the acre. Near the estuary of the Eraser, and 
in the neighborhood of Hope and of Okanagan Lake, 
are areas in all of about the same extent. North of 
the fifty-first parallel and west of the Eraser, in the 
basin of the Nechacco and its tributaries, is an area 
of about 1,230 square miles available for tillage, 
tliougli partially covered with forest, and without 
means of communication. In the Peace River coun- 
try are immense tracts of land which, though in 
part densely w^ooded, are fertile of soil, one of them, 
west of Smoky River, and known as Grand Prairie, 
containing at least 230,000 acres capable of produc- 
tion.* In all Vancouver Island there are not more 

* For further mention of climate, see p. 40-3, this vol. ; Dom. Can. Guide- 
Book, 1SS5, 71; DawKon's N. W. Terr, and B. G.,50, 62-4. For act rclixting| 
to irrigation, drainage, and diking, sec Stat. B. C, ISS2, 4; for account of 
Frascr River dikes and diking enterprises, see W. T. Inlelli<j<ncer, Juno 5, 
1879; Western Oregoinan, June 14, 1879. 

=* B. C. Inform. /or Emi'jrantu, 1884, .T). These were the average returns 
of several well-kno\ra farms. In a few favored spots as much as 80 biishcU 
per acre of wheat has been harvested, and in one locality, where tlie suifaco 
was a light sandy loam, mixed with alluvial soil, the yield was 40 buslicls of 
oats or barley and 2o of wheat. 

* ' My observations tended to show,' remarked Macoun, the botanist of the 
P. R. survey, ' that nearly all the Peace River district \\ as just as capable of 
successful settlement as Manitoba.' Bom. Can. Inform. /or Settlers, 18S4, '23. 
In his evidence before a parliamentary committee, Dawson states tliat the 
Peace River country contains an area of agricultural laud which, if all of it 
were sown in wheat, would produce over 470,000,000 bushels a year, or at the 
rate of 20 bushels an acre. 



742 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

than 300,000 acres of farming land/ of which less than 
15,000 were under cultivation in 1886," though on the 
southern and eastern sides of the island there was a 
considerable farming population. 

In the Queen Charlotte Islands, believed, like most 
of those adjacent to the north-west coast of the conti- 
nent, to be merely the mountain tops of a submerged 
tract, from which they have been separated by volcanic 
action, there are some 15,000 acres of flat and un- 
wooded land, but of this only a few hundred are suit- 
able for agriculture, the largest patches of cleared 
arable land not exceeding twenty acres.^ Of level 
pasture land the area is also limited, a tract of some 
400 acres, south of the entrance to Skidegate Inlet, 
being the largest, and this containing only a scattered 
growth of coarse beach-grass.^ 

^ Dom. Can. Inform, for Settlers, 1S84, 24. In his Vancouver Island, Isl^., 
55, Mr Bayley remarks: ' Of all the poor apologies for an agricultural coun- 
try, V. I. exceeds anything that I have as yet beheld. Its surface is diver- 
siSed with rocks, and for a change, swamps, and swamps and rocks.' In the 
Early Life on Vancouver Island, by C. A. Bayley, MS., to which reference has 
been made in former chapters, I have been furnished with some interesting 
annals touching V. I. and the mainland during the regime of the H. B. Co. 
Reaching Victoria in May 1851, the author says that there were then no signs 
of cultivation in its neighborhood. Landing on the beach, near to which stood 
the old fort, he found in its neighborhood only a few log shanLies tenanted by 
Iroquois, French Canadians, and kanakas. Employed first as a school- 
teacher, and then appointed coroner by Douglas, he I'elates many remarkable 
adventures among the native tribes during his sojourn in the north-west. 
He afterward became a member of the legislative assembly for V. I. 

^In ISSi there were only about 10,000 acres in tilth. 

^ There are, however, several thousand acres of lightly timbered spruce 
and alder lands, bordering on the bays and streams, which, if there should 
ever be a home market, might be cultiv'ated for root crops and dairy purposes. 
Chittenden's Explor. Queen Charlotte Islands, 34. 

^Almost the entire surface of the Queen Charlotte Islands is covered with 
dense forests of spruce, hemlock, and cedar, containing large quantities of 
valuable timber, and many spots where spruce can be obtained in abundance, 
but none where large saw-mills can be profitably worked. Tlie Douglas lir 
and yellow cedar were in 1SG6 the only timber which could be profitably ex- 
ported from the province, and the former was not found on this group, while 
the latter did not grow south of Skidegate Inlet in sufHcient quantity to fur- 
nish a good supply of logs. Nearly all the best varieties of fish taken in the 
waters of B. C. abounded in those of the Queen Charlotte Islands. Between 
1883 and 1883 the Skidegate Oil Company produced from 35,000 to 40,000 gal- 
lons of fish-oil a year, giving employment, during summer, to a large number 
of Indians. For many previous years the natives had extracted oil simply by 
throwing heated stones into hollow logs filled with dog-fish livers; but the oil 
thus obtained was barely marketable. By the use of retorts the company 
manufactui'ed an oil so pure and clear that it met with ready sale at fair 
prices, being especially in demand for lubricating purposes. Fur-bearing 



AGRICULTUnE. 743 

Of Texada Island, acquired under circumstances 
that called for an oflicial investigation,^ it may be said 
that it contains no area adapted either to agriculture 
or pasturage, or none that is appreciable.^" 

With such areas of available aijricultural laud, suf- 

n • • • 

ncient to mauitam more than ten times her popula- 
tion, it may not be unworthy of note, that in 1884 
current retail market prices at Victoria were, for oat- 
meal more than six cents a pound, for flour nearly 3 J 
cents, and for wheat $2.50 the cental, other articles 
of consumption selling in the same proportion, and 
this ill a community where wages were not above those 
paid in the metropolis of the Pacific coast, in which 
most of the necessaries of life could be purchased 
at little more than half the rates demanded in the 
metropolis of British Columbia." 

Public lands in British Columbia were, with the 
exception of the railroad belt, vested in the provincial 

animals, especially bears, land-otters, and martins, were very plentiful, while 
fur-seals were killed in considerable numbers, and a few sea-otter were taken 
every season. With minerals the islands were poorly supplied. Uai/lei/'s 
V. I., JMS., 9-11 ; though it has been stated that gold, silver, iron, and copper 
were discovered between ]S5'2 and 1S."-U. iSee S. F. Alia, March 8, 1S&2; 
Bulletin, Dec. 9, ISjS; April lo, .30, 1S59. The only discovery of gold worth 
uaming was that made at Mitchell Harbor in 1852, for which see p. ."4.3, this 
vol. From the Official lieport of (he Exyloralion of the Queen Chariot te Islands 
for the Gooernment of BritUh Columbia, hi/ Xewlon II. Chittenden, Victoria, 
1844, and the Geolofmd Surveij of Canada, Alfred li. C. Selu-yn, F. R. S., 
F. O. S. Dirertor, Report of Pro/jresufor ISrS-O, Montreal, ISSU, the reader 
will gather all the information of which he may be in search as to the soil, 
climate, geology, fauna, flora, and resources of the Queen Charlotte group. 
Perhaps the most interesting portions of both works are tiiose relating to the 
l)hysical peculiarities, social customs, and traditions of the Ilaidahs; but as 
I have already treated of these subjects in my Native Races, it is unnecessary 
to mention them further. 

Tor papers in the case, see Jour. Lerjid. Asa. B. C, 1875, 181-24(J. 

i"Its main value was a deposit of rich magnetic iron ore, varying from 2 
to 25 feet in thickness, and assaying in spots as much as G8 per cent of metal. 
The mine was witiiin 20 miles of Comox harbor, whence, in IbS.J, a -small 
quantity was shipped to the eastern states for treatment. Brll. Colonist, Sept. 
19, 1883. 

" In Brit. Col. Inform, for Emhjrants, 1884, 17-18, isalistof retail prices at 
the Victoria markets in lilarch of that year. For further items as to agricul- 
ture in B. C.,see Dom. Can. Inform, for Settlers, 1884, 20-5; Bom. Ca.i. 
Guide-Book, 1885, 74-5; Chittenden's Travels in B. G., passim; Daw.-<on's iV. 
W. Ter. and U. C, 50-2, 55-61, G4, passim; 5. F. Bulletin, Oct. 12. Mar. 24, 
1881; Chronicle, July 22, 1878; Alta, May 21, 1SG2; May i:}, 1871; -March:.!!, 
1872; Oct. 25, 1875; Sac. Record-Union, Jan. 1, 1884; Portland ]\ cd Hhon, 
June 1, 1880. 



744 IKDUSTPJES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

government. British subjects, or those who had de- 
clared their intention of becoming such, could pre- 
empt, at the rate of one dollar per acre, a half- 
section north or east of the Cascade Range, or a 
quarter-section elsewhere in the province, the price 
being pa^'^able in four annual instalments. Unsurveyed 
or unreserved crown lands, and surve3'ed lands not 
being town sites or Indian settlements, could, after 
being offered for sale at auction, be purchased for one 
dollar an acre, payable in cash.^^ As elsewhere in 
British colonies, it was the policy of the government 
to reserve its domain for actual settlers — men who, by 
developing and in part consuming the resources of the 
province, added to its wealth, rather than to dispose 
of it for a nominal price to speculators and capitalists. 
Moreover, the public lands were a source of revenue 
which could be utilized to better advantage, as from 
year to year the population gradually increased. 

For stock-raising purposes the mainland interior, 
and especially its southern portion, esmt of the Fraser, 
was considered the most favorable region. ^^ The 
higher plateaux of this district, though little culti- 
vated on account of summer frosts, are for the most 
part covered with nutritious bunch-grass, which, un- 

'^The fee for recording was two dollars an acre. The first instalmeiit for 
preeiiiption claims need not be paid until two years after date of record. 
After ourvey, and on proof that, from date of occupation, improvements had 
l)een made to the amount of not less than §2.50 an acre, the settler was entitled 
to a ' certificate of improvement, ' and on full payment to a grant in fee .simple. 
Naval and military officers could, after seven years' service, obtain free gran Is 
of land under the Military and Naval Settleis' act, ]S;i3. Lands and im- 
provements, duly registered, could not be attached for debt up to a value of 
^2,.")00, and goods and chattels up to $r>00. Dom. Can. Inform, for Settlers, 
JSiJl, 2G-S; U07n. Can. Guide-Book, 1883, 77-8. For reports of commissioners 
of lands and works, see B. G. Lands and Works Depart. New Westminster, 
ISJG. Jour. LegisL Ass., lS7o, 301-481; Sess. Papers, B. C., 187(5, 4I9-:)G;J, 
ili.-xxii.; 1877, 249-33U, i.-xxxvL; 1878,263-378,455-93; 1879,247-54; 1880, 
2J5-310; 1881, 389-418. For land acts, see Stat. B. C., 1877, 114; 1882, 6, 
l;;-18; 1883, 17, 77-8; 1884, 16. 

^2 Davvsoii's evidence, in Uom. (kin. Inform, for Settles, 1884, 23; B. C. 
Inform fur Emigrants, 29. Gond is of opinion that the section forming the 
basin of tlie Thompson, Nicohi, Bonaparte, and Spillemeechen rivers, and bor- 
dering on lakes La Hache, Kamloop, Nicola, Shuswap, and Okauagan, waa 
tiie best field for pastoral enterprise. Brit. Vol., MS., 77-8. 



GRAZING LAXDS. 745 

less eaten closel}', and not allowed to seed, never ceases 
to grow, its heart remaining green tbrougliout winter, 
when the exterior is dry and withered. ^^ On this 
pasture cattle and sheep thrive, grass-fed beef and 
mutton being of excellent quality; while, with some 
provision of winter food, in case of severe weather, 
sheep and cattle require only the protection of a shel- 
tered spot with little depth of snow\ 

Extending from the railroad line to the heart of 
the northern interior, the Yale and Cariboo wv^gon- 
road passes through or near considerable areas of rich 
grazing land, in which, beyond the 52d parallel, the 
grasses are mainly what are known as the red- top 
and blue-joint, interspersed, on the southern slopes of 
hills, wdth the pea- vine. Although these grasses 
could doubtless be cut and preserved for future use, 
thus saving the necessity of wintering stock elsewhere, 
the experiment has never yet been tried on an^^ con- 
siderable scale. In the Peace Kiver district, and in 
the north-east angle of the territory, are vast areas of 
land too remote for agricultural settlement, and which 
as yet are but little utilized, even for stock-raising. 
In the coast region the richest lands for pasture, as 
for agriculture, are found in the delta of the Fraser, 
although for the former purpose their greater value 
and limited area render competition with the interior 
almost impossible. 

In Vancouver the area available for pasture is some- 
what limited, the flat, untimbered region in the 
southern and eastern portions of the island being 
turned to more profitable use for agricultural pur- 
poses. In many parts, however, there are patclies 
of soil, covered with short, thick, nutritious grasses, 
T\liere, as in the more thinly wooded sections of the 
hill country, small herds may thrive the year round 
without shelter, except protection for the weaklier 

"Bunch-grass is found at intervals between the western slojje of the 
Black Hills anil the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. For description, see 
my Hid. Wcu-hiiKjlon, Idaho, and Montana, and Hist. Nevada, Colorado, and 
WyomiiKj. 



746 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

stock from excessive rains. Among the islands be- 
tween Vancouver and the mainland, in all of which 
agriculture and pasture lands are of small extent, may 
be mentioned that of Salt Spring, adjacent to the 
Cowichin district, and sharing in its geologic for- 
mation, where herbage is abundant and of excellent 
quality.^^ 

Indigenous to island and mainland are many of 
the excellent berries and small fruits,^^ while in the 
orchards of Victoria, New Westminster, and other 
towns and villages may be seen most of the fruits that 
thrive in temperate climates, the crops, especially in 
the district of New Westminster, forming no incon- 
siderable source of profit. ^^ 

Among the most valuable resources of the province 
are its fisheries, the seas, bays, lakes, and rivers 
swarming with excellent food-fish. Besides the sal- 
mon, the herring, bass, flounder, halibut, sole, smelt, 
sardine, and eulachon are found in abundance, and 
sturgeon weighing more than 500 pounds have been 
caught in the rivers, estuaries, and larger lakes. The 
silver salmon begins to arrive in March or early in 
April, the run lasting till the end of June, their weight 
usually ranging from four to twenty-five pounds, 
though some have been captured that weighed more 

^^ For further items as to stock-raising and cattle-ranges, see Good's Brit. 
Col., MS.; Bayley's Vancouver Island, MS., passim; Chittenden's Travels in 
Brit. Col., 6-8; S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 22, 1881; Alta, July 11, 1863; Victoria 
Standard, Dec. 10, 1879. In the Reports of the Minister of Agriculture 
for the Dominion of Canada, one almost turns in vain for informalion, their 
subject-matter relating principally to immigration, patents, quarantine reg- 
ulations, plagues, pleuro-pneumonia, public archives, art statistics, copy- 
rights, statistiques criminellus, statistics of insolvency, and, in brief, to ail 
conceivable statistics except those which the reports should contain. 

^''On V. I. are found the strawberry, barberry, blackberry, raspberry, 
gooseberrj', mulberry, cranberry, blueberry, bilberry, whortleberry, yellow 
plum, cherry, and several kinds of currants. B. G. Inform, for Emigrants 
(1884), 32; Bayley's V. I., MS., 63-6. 

I'iS. G. Direct., 1882-3, 200. For mention of the flora and fauna of the 
province, see cap. ii., this vol.; Good's B. Xj., MS., passim; Bayley's V. /., 
MS., 63-8; Chittenden's Travels in B. C, passim; Dawson's N. W. Terr, and 
Brit. Col, 65-71. For Game Trotection act, 1883, see Stat. B. C, 1883, 37-8. 



FISHERIES. 747 

than seventy pounds. From June until August are 
taken the finest varieties, while in the latter month 
every second year commences the run of the hump- 
back salmon, followed by the hookbill, which contin- 
ues until w^inter. Herring and haddock are caught 
during the winter months; anchovies in the autumn; 
trout weighing from three to seven pounds are found 
in the lakes ^^ and streams; and dog-fish, valuable for 
their oil, in many of the bays and inlets. The eula- 
chon, a delicate table-fish, about seven or eight inches 
in length, and yielding an excellent oil, enters the 
Fraser in vast quantities during spring.^" For shell- 
fish there are 03'sters on many parts of the coast, 
small, but of excellent flavor,-" and there are crawfish, 
crabs, and mussels. 

Of late years the salmon-canneries and other enter- 
prises in connection with the fisheries of British Co- 
lumbia have, notwithstanding low prices, increased 

^^ On Salt Spring Island is a large lake about 150 feet above the sea-level, 
with deep water up to its edge, and in the middle of which no bottom has buerx 
found. Here are speckled trout over three feet long, and weighing more 
than 40 pounds. They will not take bait, but are speared by the Indians 
during winter. 5a//%'.s F. /., MS., 69. 

'* At certain seasons it is the chief business of some of the tribes to catch 
and cure thes3 fish for winter use. Erecting lodges near the bays and ialcts 
where they aliound, their fishing is done by moonliglit, for it is then only 
that the eulachon comes to the surface. For taking the lish a large rake is 
used, with teeth of bone or iron, four inches long and one inch a;'art. In 
the stern of each canoe sits an Indian, who propels it towanl the shoals of 
eulachon, while another, holding it firmly in both hands, sweeps it througli 
the mass of iish, bringhig it to the surface wth one or more on each tooth. 
After being loaded the canoes are paddled to laud, drawn on the beach, over- 
turned, and again launched for auotlier catch. This work continues unlil 
the setting of "the moon, when the fish disappear. The take is then haackil 
over to the women to be cured and dried, and the oil tried out. See 2>'<ifhi: 
Bare.'i, this series. Daiusons Northire.^t Ten: and Brit. Col., 9S-9. In ]8cl 
eul.ichon oil was believed to be a good substitute for coddiver oil. CaUj'ornhui, 
Aug. 18S1, 177. Later exiterieiice has shown it to be of little value forn.e- 
dicinal purposes. For further items touching B. C. fisheries, see Bai/le/n I'. 
/., MS.; Gootrs B. C, MS., passim; ChUtewIcus Trfn-abs in B. C, 29, passi:.i; 
I)aw.^on's X. ir. Ten: and B: C, 78-113; Jour. Lr/id. .hs. B. C, lSi;2, 2, o, 
7; Home Ex. Doc, 4<:fh Comj., 8d Segs., L, pt. 1, o>)4; 7?<7;<.<. Coii,m. Fi-dienra 
(Ottawa), with supplements, 1874-80; S. F. AWi, Apr. 10, 1S82; Bidkfn, July 
2(), ISSl; Storlion Lideprndad, Aug. 19, 18S_1; W. T. hHUjenrtr, Jun. U, 
1879; Virtorl'i Standard, July 25, Oct. 31, 18/7; Brit. Clonist, Dec. 21, 1^77. 

^•^ At Oyster Bay, in the Cowichan district, were found the best oyster- 
beds, but the limited demand, and the ditllculty in landing the i)rotluct at 
Victoria in good condition and at small expen.se, prevented their extensive 
use. B. C. Tiirei-'., ] 882-3, 1"8.- As early as 18.")3, oysterdieds were pointed 
out by the Indians at Nitinat Bay. Ihin<:oi:k's T/dii<'tn Years, MS., 289. 



748 mDU3TRIES, COMMERCE, A^B FINANCE. 

largely the exports of the province. In 1876, there 
were but three canneries in operation, the total out- 
put being only 8,247 cases of 48 one-pound tins each. 
In 1881 the number had increased to twelve, with a 
yield of 177,276 cases; and in 1882 to twenty, with a 
production of 255,061 cases, valued at $1,402,835. 
The total yield of the fisheries for the latter year was 
estimated at $1,842,675.^^ The estimate for the catch 
of fur-seals was $187,250. At that date the various 
industries in this connection gave employment, during 
the season, to more than 5,000 men, and to a fleet of 
14 steamers, 12 schooners, and nearly 1,000 boats and 
canoes.-^ Thus, since 1851, when fresh salmon sold 
at San Juan Island at the rate of sixty for a four-dol- 
lar blanket, ^^ smoked salmon, cured at Fort Langley, 
was worth, in the Sandwich Islands, $16 a barrel, 
and canned salmon was exported in small quantity 
from the mouth of the Fraser,-* the fisheries of British 
Columbia have given rise to one of the leading indus- 
tries of the province. 

Apart from lumber and canned salmon, manufactures 
in 1866 were inconsiderable, thouo^h all that micrht 
be expected in a new country. With concentration of 
labor and capital, it follows, as a matter of course, that 
the home country, where four dollars a week are proba- 
bly more than the average earnings of operatives, out- 
does her colonies. There were, in the province, at that 
date, boiler and machine shops, iron and brass works, 
flour-mills, biscuit-factories, saw-mills,^^ book-binder- 

^^ Including $56,146 worth of barrelled and smoked salmon, |14,291 of 
barrelled and smoked herrings, ^10,4G0 of fresh fish, $108,11.3 of fish-oil, and 
$58, GOO for various items. Sess. Papers, B. C, 1883, 379. 

^^ Id. For additional items concerning the canneries, see S. F. Bulletin, At'.g. 
29, 1881; W. T. Intellljencer, Sept. 3, 1879; Victoria Standard, April 25, 1877; 
New Westmimter Herald, in Portland Standard, Aug. 10, 1877. 

^'■^ British Columbia Sketches, MS., 22. At this date there was a small 
establishment on the island for the curing of salmon. 

^'Seep. 132, this vol. 

2^ The first saw-mill was built in 1861 at the Sooke copper mines. Baylet/s 
V. I., MS., 61. Among the flour-mills may be mentioned the one at Chilli- 
whack, of which in 1885 Robert Stevenson, a native of Williamstown, Out., 
w^as the proprietor. Mr Stevenson arrived in Victoria on board tlie Orizaba 
in 1859, and two years later tried his fortune at the Cariboo mines, being one 



^lAXUFACTURES AND MIXES. 749 

ics, breweries, tanneries,-*' and factories for the mak- 
ing of boots and shoes, furniture,-' pianos, saslies 
and doors, soap, matches, and cigars. Xevertheless, 
most of the wool and other raw material, which in 
California were largely made up into goods of home 
production, were in British Columbia almost entirely 
exported,-^ to be returned, for instance, as textile fab- 
rics, with the added charges of freight, commission, 
and manufacture. 

In the report of the minister of mines for the 
3'ear 1884 there are statistics which may not be with- 
out interest to the reader. At that date the yield of 
gold had fallen to $73G,1G5, or an average of only 
$39 G for each of the workers engaged in gold-mining. 
Between July 1858 and the close of 1884 the total 
output was estimated at $48,G72,128, and the average 
at about $1,900,000, that for 1884 being the smallest. 



of tlie first white men to winter there. Prominent among the himber mer- 
chants of Victoria was William Parsons Saywartl, the ])roi)rietor of tlie Rock 
Bay saw-mill, a native of Thomaston, 2^Ie., and a Cal. pioneer, arrived in the 
colony in 18r)8. 

2* In ] 884 there were six tanneries in o^ieration — one at Rock Bay, the Bay 
tannery in close proximity, one at Belmont, seven miles from Victoria, one 
near Parson's bridge, five miles from the capital, and one each at Naaainio and 
New Westminster. In connection with the Rock Bay and Belmont tanneries 
were boot and shoe factories. The hides and skins were of local production, 
tlie surplus being niaiidy exported to S. F. Hendock bark, from the Sooke 
and Otter districts, was chiefiy used — thougli oak bark was imported from 
Cal. J fed thorn's Indmtncs of B. C, :MS. Tlie Rock B;iy tannery, built in 
1862 by W. Hartley, was the first one estaldished in Vancouver, and in 1885 
was the largest i:i the province. At the latter date it was proilucing some 
400 sides of sole, and 200 of upper, leatlier per month, besides calf, kip, seal, 
goat, slieep-skin, harness, bridle, and apirejo leather. M_n.st of tlie product, 
however, was iised in the boot and slioc factory. In 1875 tlie business was 
purchased by William Heathorn, a native of Guildford, England, who arrived 
at Victoria in 18i;2, and to whom I am indebted for this information. 

■■'^ In Victoria there were three furniture factories — those of Jolin "Weiler, 
Jacob Sehl, and Josei)h Somner, the two first being for liousehold and the last 
for office furniture. Weiler and Sehl arrived in the colony at an early date, 
the former, a native of Nassau, Germany, reaching Victoria in IS '.1, and tho 
latter, a native of Coblentz, in 1858. Both came by way of Cal., where ^^■eller 
engaged in mining, and Sehl was a manufacturer and general dealer iu furni- 
ture. 

^'^In 1884 a premium of .?3,000 wa,s offered by the government for the first 
one-set mill erected in tlie province with a capacity for manufacturing not 
less than 50,000 poun.ls of wool into yarns, lilankets, flannels, and tweeds. 
St<U. B. C, 1884, 35. For mention of Moodyville Saw-mill Co., st'eCfiUteiuhn s 
Travels in B. C, 66; and for further iteins coueeruiug manufactures, see Srit. 
Colonkt, June 17, Oct. 13, Nov. 6, 1879. 



750 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

The largest earnings per capita were in 1875, when 
they reached $1,222, and the average for the 25j years 
covered by the report did not exceed $600. Ot those 
workinw' for wao'es durinof the season there were 492 
white men and 1,36G Chinamen, rates for the former 
averaging about $3.75 a day, and for the latter $2.75. 

Of coal, the total yield for 1884 was 394,070 tons, 
the output for that 3^ear being the largest so far re- 
corded, and showing an increase of 46 per cent over 
that of the preceding year. It is- worthy of note that, 
according to an accepted commercial authority in San 
Francisco, then the best available market for the sur- 
plus coal of the province, the imports of that city and 
of Wilmington included 291,546 tons of British Col- 
umbia coal out of a total of 1,035,076 tons, and against 
77,485 tons of California coal, Vancouver Island thus 
furnisliing nearly 30 per cent of the entire supply.^*^ 

In his message for 1885, the president of the 
United States mentioned that her Majesty's govern- 
ment has been requested to consider the question of 
settling more definitely the boundary line between 
Alaska and British Columbia, suggesting that it " be 
established by merid.ian observations, or by known 
geographical features, without the necessity of an 
expensive survey of the whole. As yet, indeed, it 
may be said that no exact line of demarcation exists, 
for, through lack of geographical knowledge of this 
region, the one determined in the convention between 

29 The local consumption of B. C. for 1S84 was 87,388 tons, and 15,136 tons 
were shipped to various countries, mainly to the Sandwich Islands. The 
text of the report, preceded by tables of statistics, will be found in Se.ss. 
Papers, B. C, 1S85, 417-36. For acts to consolidate and amend laws relat- 
ing to nuuerals, see Stat. B. C, 1S8'2, S; 1S83, 10; and for act to encourajje 
prospecting for coal, Stat. B. C, 1783, 5. In 18.55 C. A. Bayley first dis- 
covered copper near Sansome narrows, and in 18G0 the vein was opened, but 
as the ore did not assay more tlian 23 per cent, it could not be worked at a 
profit, and the mine was abandoned. Bai/ley's 1'. /., MS., 61. For additional 
items as to mining, mineral yield, and mining enterprise, see the reports of the 
commissioner of mines for each year, in Sess. Papers, B. C; Vkittenden''s 
Travels in B. C, 3-5, 20-2; Scidmore's Alaska, 6-15; Brit. Colonist, passim; 
Portland Telegram, Oct. 31, 1879; Washhifjton Intelligencer, May 22, Sept. 
16, July 23, 1870; S. F. Bulletin, May 25, 1875; May 22, June 24, July 1, 20, 
Aug. 25, Oct. 17, Sept. 29, Oct. 1, Nov. 9, 1881, May 6, 1884; Alta, July 3, 
1884; Jour, of Com., May 23, 1877; Com. Herald, July 5, 1877. 



PORTS OF ENTRY. 751 

Hussia and Great Britain in 1825 was so vague that 
it is impossible to follow the text of the agreement."" 
So long as, apart from her fur-seals, fisheries, and 
land peltry, Alaska was considered practically worth- 
less, and the northern part of British Columbia 
nearly so, the boundary question was of little moment; 
but the discovery of mineral wealth in both territo- 
ries, and in more than one instance near the limits 
agreed upon in 1825, would seem almost to render it 
necessary that those limits be defined more clearly, 
in order to avoid future complications. Moreover, 
the trade of the province is seriously disturbed by the 
present condition of the matter. The mouth of the 
Stikeen River, for instance, is in American territory. 
Fort Wrangell being the nearest port of entry. 
There goods intended for the mainland interior must 
be transshipped, or an officer placed on board the ves- 
sel, a part of whose duty it is to see that they are not 
landed on American soil in transitu. Some thirty 
miles toward the south a port of entry could be estab- 
lished within the British line, and one which sea- 
going vessels could enter without breaking bulk; but 
until the line of demarcation is territorially defined, 
it may not be advisable to select the site for a port 
of entry on the verge of the northern boundary. 
Meanwhile complaints have been made of the illib- 
eral and sometimes inexcusable conduct of the custom- 
house officers at Wrangell. ^^ 

For 1884 the exports of British Columbia amounted 
to $3,099,814, and of the dominion to $86,521,175; 
while imports were for the former $4,142,286,^- and 

^•'For description of the boundary line, see Hid. Alcw^ha, 543, this series; 
ScKS. Paper.'i, B. C, 18S5, 453-4. 

3' Rept of Coniin. Ex. Council B. C. on the Alaska Boundary Question, 
in Scss. Papers, I8S5, 4r>l-G0, where it is stated that Capt. Irviug, manager 
of tl»e Canadian Pacific Steainljoatand Navigation Company, was on one occa- 
sion subjected to such treatment, his vessel being ilkg^iliy seized, and a loss 
thus incurretl of several thousand dollars, for whicli he was compelled to seek 
redress in the U. S. courts. In IbTSa conditional boundary line in the val- 
ley of the Stikeen Piiver was temporarily accepted by the governments of 
Canada and tlie U. S. House Ex. Doc, J^-Jth Coixj., Sd Se^x., »., 339-48. 

'-Of dutiable goo<ls, 83,445,400, and of goods exempt from duty, princi- 
pally railroad material, §o9L),S77. 



752 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

for the latter $108,282,601. Thus, apart from domes- 
tic trade the commerce of this province, with a pop- 
ulation then estimated at 60,000, was nearly four per 
cent of that of the entire dominion, with a popula- 
tion of about 4,500,000, the ratio of population being 
as one to seventy-five, and of imports and exports as 
one to twenty-five. Due allowance being made for 
the fact that competition in trade was less severe on 
the Pacific than on the Atlantic coast, and that 
between them there was a vast and almost unpeopled 
interior, it must be admitted that thus far the young- 
est offspring of the mother country has not been slow 
of growth. Comparing British Columbia with Que- 
bec, for instance, we find for the latter province, with 
a population in 1884 of about 1,500,000, an external 
commerce of $82,545,184, the ratio of population 
being as twenty-five to one, and of imports and 
exports as one hundred to nine. 

Exports in 1884 consisted mainly of coal and gold, 
fish and fish-oils, peltry, hides, and lumber, of which 
Great Britain purchased to the value of $878,883, in- 
cluding canned salmon valued at $670,758, the United 
States $1,691,767, and Australia $257,262. For the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1872, the twelvemonth 
following the confederation of the colony, the total 
exports 'amounted to $1,912,107.^' That with the 
completion of the railroad and her advantages for inter- 
oceanic communication, the commerce of the province 
w'a\ develop yet more rapidly, is almost beyond a per- 
adventure. Supported by British capital, it would 
seem that British Columbia may, in the not very 
distant future, be no inconsiderable factor in the traf- 
fic, not only of the dominion, but of the mother coun- 
try.3* 

3='0f which G. Brit, took $224,944. and the U. S. $1,405,217. Table.i oj 
Trcvie and Nav. Dom. Can., 1S72. 

^* For statistics and items as to trade, see Tables Trade and Nav. Dom. 
Can. Ann. Repts B. C. Board of Trade, passim. In the Acts of Incorporation 
and By-laws, B. C. Board of Trade, Victoria, 1879, 34-5, are tariffs of fees 
that compare somewhat to the disadvantage of those collected in San Fran- 
cisco. San Diego, Portland, Port Townsend^ Sitka, and Wrangell. For addi- 



BAXKS AND BAXKIXa ToS 

With banking and insurance facilities Eritisli Co- 
lumbia was but poorly supplied. In 1885 there were 
but three banks in the entire i)rovince — the bank of 
British Columbia, with a capital of $500,000, with its 
head office in London, with branches at San Francisco, 
Portland, Victoria, and New Westminster, and agen- 
cies in Mexico, South America, India, China, and 
Australia; the bank of British North America, with 
its main office at the capital; and the Dominion Sav- 
ings Bank, with its headquarters at New Westmin- 
ster,^^ and with numerous branches. There was not 
at this date a single local insurance compan}^ though 
there were several agencies of Canadian, British, or 
foreign companies, the British Columbia Insurance 
Company, incorporated in 1877,^° having then ceased 
to exist. In this respect British Columbia contrasted 
somewhat unfavorably with her sister provinces, and 
with the Australian colonies, in which latter thei-e 
were few settlements mustering say 500 inhabitants 
wherein there could not be found one or more branches 
of colonial banks, and several agencies of colonial life, 
fire, or marine insurance companies. 

During the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 
1880, there arrived at the port of Victoria 471 sea- 
going vessels, with a total measurement of 3G5,G40 
tons^ and of wdiich 135 were British or Canadian, 319 
belonged to the United States, and the remainder 
sailed under the flags of various foreign nations. The 
clearances for the same year numbered 4G5, of which 
118 carried the British and 333 the United States 

tional infoi-mation as to trade and commerce, sec IIoui>e Ex. Doc. 45lh Confj., 
2d .S>.s*., xxi., 1)0. 90, -28-7 -2, i:;4-70; Id., xxVi., no. 102, 507; hi. 40th' 
Conr/., 21 Se.ss., xvL, no. 7, 80-78, 112-98, iG-l-SOO; Jour. LeijUl. Couhcu, 
K6d, 15, app. ii-iii.; U.S. Bnnan of Stat., no. 2, 1879-80, pp. 14:}, 1G2, U)\, 
189. Brit. Colonist, May 14, 1878: Apr. II, July 12, Oct. 24, 1879; Virtoria 
SUuidard, Apr. 26, 1879; Slaiidard. Jan. 28, Marcli 10, ISSO; S. F. liulUtnt, 
June 7, 185SrMay 14. 1859; Aug. IS, ISO.S; Oct. 24, 1804; July 22, 1874; Alia, 
May 21, I8G0; Feb. 22, 1S6C; Feb. 10, 18C7; Sept. 12, 1871; Feb. 3, 1877. 

"Z? C Direct., 1884-5, 88, 108; 1882-3, xxiii. For further items as to 
banking, see S. F. Alta, July 20, 18G4, May 5, 1873; Com. Herald, Aug. 20. 
18G8. 

"•^ For act of incorporation, see Stat. B. C, 1877, 141-7. 
Hist. Bbit. Col. 18 



754 IXDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

flag, their aggregate measurement being 353,087 tons. 
Of the arrivals only 73, and of the departures only 
53, were sailing ships, and of these a large proportion 
sailed or reached port in ballast. The preponderance 
of American vessels is, of course, explained by the 
traffic between Victoria, San Francisco, Portland, 
and other points on the Pacific coast of the United 
States, all of it, or nearly so, being in the hands of 
American ship-owners.^'^ There were about this time 
five steamers plying on the Fraser, between New 
Westminster and Yale, Victoria and Yale, Soda 
Creek and Quesnelle, Kamloop and Savona's ferry, 
all of them belonging to the Pioneer Line, which suc- 
ceeded to the British Columbia Navigation Company, 
then under the management of John Irving.^^ Before 
the line of the overland railway was located, the 
Thompson Piver, containing, with its affluents, some 
300 miles of navigable water, held in its mountainous 
basin a population sufficient to support several small 
steamers. ^^ On the completion of the projected canal 
between Okanagan and Shuswap lakes — the two be- 
ing almost on the same level, separated onl}^ by a 
single valley, and with the Thompson as the outlet of 
the latter — more than 100 miles would be added to 
the navigable channel of this stream. 

Thus, since the days when the little, black steamer 
Beaver — the first to perform such an exploit — rounded 
Cape Horn on her voyage from London to Esquimalt, 
beins: used first by the Hudson's Bay Company to 

'^ Complete navigation returns for the province will be found in the Tables 
of Trade and Nav. Dom. Can. for 18S0, 75G-7, 802-3, 830. 

^'^The only son of Wtn Irving, who arrived in S. F. in 1848, in charge of 
the bark John \V. Caton. In 18,v2 the latter engaged in the steamboat busi- 
ness on the Columbia, whence, in IS.'jO, he removed to the Fraser to take 
charge of the affairs of the B. C. Nav. Co. The names of the five steamers 
vvei'e the Wll'iam Irvhig, the Reliance, the Victoria, the Peer/e^s, and the E. 
J. Irvinr/, the last, a fine vessel of G"25 tons, being burned at Hope in Sept. 
ISSl. The entire capital invested in them was $175,000. In 1882 two new 
steamers, one of 800 and the other of 400 tons, were being built for the Pion- 
eer line. Ilittell's Com. and Ind. Pac. Coast, 198. 

^' Built by Mara and Wilson, of which firm J. A. Mara was one of the 
leading men in the Kamloop district, and a member of the provincial parlia- 
ment. 



REVENUE. 755 

collect peltry and convey supplies, then as a gov- 
ernment surveying vessel,*'' and ending her career 
as a tug, vast strides have been made in the shipping 
interests of the territory. From one suppty-ship a 
year, with an occasional visit from some storm-bound 
or dismantled craft, in 1846, to an average of at least 
four vessels a day, cleared or entered in 1886, is a 
somewhat startling contrast. Why it is that British 
Columbia never, as yet, ranked ship-building among 
her industries, does not at present appear. If, within 
this century, Sitka could, to a small extent, compete 
wnth Okhotsk" and Port Townsend with Bath and 
Bangor, there would seem to be no good reason why 
Victoria and Port Moody should not enter into com- 
petion with Halifax and St John." 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1884, the total 
revenue of British Columbia amounted to $887,686, 
of which $207,996 was received from the dominion 
government/^ $91,433 on account of land sales, $48, 
686 for provincial revenue tax, and $384,512 for the 
transfer to the dominion of the graving-dock, and for 
money expended on its construction by the province. 
For the same period the expenditure under all heads 
was $590,629, of which $81,953 was on account of the 

*" In which capacity she did excellent service. Baylei/s V. I. , ^IS. , 7G. 

"See Ilist. Alanhx, this series, p. 691, note 45. 

*- Additional information as to shipping matters will be found in Tables of 
Trade and Nav. Doin. Can., passim; But/ley's V. I., MS., 75-7; Cooper^t 
Manlime Matters, MS., passim; S. F. Call, June 4, 8, 1SG5; Apr. 21, 1870; 
Bulletin, June 11, 1861; Portland ]Ve4 Shore, July 1877. For account of 
wreck of the steamer Geonje S. Wr'Kjht, and massacre of her crew, sec S. F. 
Bulletin, March 3, 4, 19, l'873; July 2."5, 1877; Call, Apr. 6, July 2?,, 1877; 
Post, Apr. 7, June 4. 1877; Alta,^la.rc\\ 3, 1873; Vinjinia City ChronirU, A^r. 
7, 1877; Steilai:oom(W. T.) Express, July 26, 1877. For loss of the Stiranac, 
seeS. F. Post, June 22, 25, 1875; (W^ June 22, 1875; and for otiicn'.uiutcrs 
by sea, .9. F. Alta, Jnne 20, 1872; Call, Dec. 26, 1874; Bulletin, S. pt. 30, 
Oct. 1, 1881. Pilotage regulations will be found in the Victoria and Esqui- 
mau Pilotage By-laws, Victoria, 1880; B. C. Direct., 1882-3, o0.>-6. For 
information as to rules and customs of port and harbormasters, port-wardeus, 
and quarantine regulations, see JJand-Books of the Board of Trade. As late 
as 1875 there were but three light-liouscs in the entire province, one each at 
Race Rocks, at the entrance of Esquimalt Uarbor, and on South Sand Head, 
at the entrance of the Fraser. List of Lights, Dam. Can., 37. 

*^ Of the latter sum, §24,996 was for interest, $35,000 for subsidy, §48,000 
for grant per capita, and §100,000 for lands conveyed. Sess. Papers, B. C, 
1885, 44. 



756 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

public debt, $47,323 for the civil service, $97,480 
for the administration of justice, and $217,491 for 
public works. At that date there were debentures 
outstanding to the amount of $747,500/* Compared 
with other provinces, and considering the large per- 
centage of expenditure devoted to public works, it 
must be admitted that finances were in a healthy 
condition, one of the most noticeable features in the 
comparison being that the average debt per capita 
was for the province little more than $12, and for the 
dominion about $46.*^ In the amount of customs 
paid into the consolidated revenue fund of the domin- 
ion, pro rata of population, the contrast was still more 
remarkable. Taking, for instance, the fiscal 3^ear 
1878-9, for which there are exact returns at .hand 
for all the provinces, we find that British Columbia, 
with a population amounting only to 12^ per cent of 
that of Nova Scotia, paid more than 43 per cent of the 
sum contributed by the latter; nearly 11 per cent of 
the sums contributed by Ontario and Quebec, where 
the ratios of population were respectively as 40 and 
30 to one; 88 per cent more than was paid by Mani- 
toba, with about an equal population; and 150 per cent 
more than was paid by Prince Edward Island, with 
double the population.*^ 

In presenting to the reader the annals thus far re- 
corded of British Columbia, I have spoken of a people 

**A statement of the public accounts for each year will be found in the 
reports of the minister of finance, in Sess. Papers, B. C. See also Jour. 
Legist. Ass. B. C; Stat. B. C, passim. For 1872 the revenue was §i)27,514; 
1873, $370,150; 1874, $372,417; 1875, $351,241; 1876, $381,120; 1877, $408, 
348; 1878, $430,786; for the first six months of 1879, $213,057; for the fiscal 
year July 1, 1879, to June 30, 1880, $390,908; 1880-1, $397,035; lSSl-2, 
$453,244; 1882-3, $425,808. The expenditure was, for 1872, $432,082; 1873, 
$399,919; 1874, $584,282; 1875, including $213,400 of the snm raised under 
the B. C. loan act of 1874, $829,277; 1876, including $G6,G00 for balance of 
loan, $796,710; 1877, $698,345; 1878, $518,970; 1879-80, $457,026; 1880-1, 
$379,790; 188 1-2, $474,492; 18S2-3, $594,102. 

^^ For further items as to revenue and finance, see Mackenzie's Mem. Can. 
Pac. Bailway, MS.; Canada Public Accounts, 1876-7; Canada Inland liev. 
Iiept.% 1876-80, passim. 

^"^ Speech of De Cosmos in the dominion house of commons, Apr. 10, 1880. 
See IJa7isard's Debates; Dawson's N. W. Terr, and B. C, 178-9, 



GENERAL DEVELOPMENT. 757 

which, if not among the richest, is among the most 
contented, hopeful, and thrifty communities of the 
Pacific coast. The youngest offspring of the motlier 
of nations, tliis province contains a population whose 
memhers regard their adopted country as one not 
merely as a place in which to grasp at wealth, but as 
one in which they are content to live, in which they 
are proud to live. And in their adopted country the 
impartial observer may find much that is worthy of 
admiration. The territory comprises within its area, 
entirely or in part, the streams which beyond the 
forty-ninth parallel flow westward into the Pacific, 
and the tributaries of the Mackenzie that flow north 
toward the Arctic. With a shore line of more than 
7,000 miles,*'' containing many harbors and navigable 
inlets, with her magnificent fauna and i^ora, her wealth 
of minerals and fisheries, her growing commerce, her 
commercial position, and her facilities for communica- 
tion*^ and manufacture, it is not improbable that, even 
within the life-time of the present generation, British 
Columbia may rank among the foremost provinces of 

" As computed by A. A. Anderson, inspector of fisheries, in his report for 
1S79. IlltteWs Commerce and Industries, 41. 

^*In 1SS5 it was officially announced that a mail service was to be estab- 
lished between Hong-Kong and Victoria. S. F. Bulletin, Oct. '24, ISSj. For 
postal convention with the U. S., see Me.ts. and Doc, 1S70-I; Navy and P. 
O. Dept. 133-5. In 1S80 there were 22 postal routes in the province, of wliich 
7 were by steamer or sailing vessel, the number of trips varying from two 
each day between Victoria and Esquimalt, to one every two months between 
Hope and Kootenai. The subsidies paid for regular services varied from §75 
a year, for the route bet%veen Maple Bay and Sonicnos, to $13,333.34 a year, 
for the one between Barkcrvillc and Yale, the total being §34,928.44. Ji'fpt 
of Post. -Gen. for ISSO, 112-13. Of course, after tlie completion of tlie railway, 
the cost of the more expensive routes was greatly reduced. Li 1SS2 tliere 
were G2 post-offices on the island and mainland. For list, see JJ. C. Direct., 
18S2-3, 370. In 1SG8 mails were first sent direct to S. F. by steamer. .S'. F. 
Call, Apr. 30, 1868. In 18SG steamers sailed from S. F. to Victoria every 
eighth day. At this date, also, a submarine cable connected Victoria with the 
mainland, crossing the gulf of Georgia at Nanaiino, while another cable, laid 
across the straits of San Juan de Fuca, connected the capital with Washing- 
ton and thence with all parts of the world. B. C. Direct., 1884-5, 9. .Sound- 
ings for a submarine cable were taken in ISSl. S. F. Bulletin, May 12, 18SI. 
In° 18G8 a cable had already been laid between Victoria and S. Juan. .S. F. 
Call, Sept. 8, 1868; and in 18G5 across the Eraser. .S'. /'. Alta, April 1, ISGo. 
For mention of the proposed Russian-American telegraph line, se'- S. t. t all, 
Apr. 12, 1864; N. Y. Shipping List, in S. F. Mer. Gazette, Nov. 12, 18G4; .s. F. 
Bulletin, Jan. G, 1865. 



758 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

the dominion. Meanwhile she can claim, at least, 
the distinction of being one of the most progressive 
regions of British North America, and though but a 
few years ago considered almost as a cipher when 
comjDared with other provinces, may prove to be a 
cipher which contributes untold value to all the rest. 
As in other parts of the Pacific coast, and as in 
Australia, the rescources of British Columbia would 
not have been even partially developed but for the 
discovery of gold ; and here, as elsewhere, though of 
the thousands lured by expectation of sudden riches 
a few acquired a fortune, and a considerable number 
realized modest gains, the majority not only became 
bankrupt in pocket, but, suffering hunger and priva- 
tion, had cause to rue their folly in forsaking more 
substantial gains, and awoke from their visions of 
phantom wealth to the stern realities of their condi- 
tion, as an outcast from a dream of paradise. To such 
daring, open-handed, and often noble-hearted men, 
countries which have since attained to prominence are 
indebted, not only for their origin, but for much of 
their progress; and on the forgotten graves of these 
reckless adventurers, abandoned in life to the bitter- 
ness of despair and degradation, will rest the pillars 
of mighty states and empires. 

In closing the records of British Columbia, it may 
not be without interest to refer once more to the 
Canadian Pacific railway, which, as the reader will 
remember, was completed in the summer of 1885, the 
terminus being at Port Moody, though it would prob- 
ably have been removed to Vancouver, at the mouth 
of Burrard Inlet, but for the destruction of that town 
by fire in June 1886."' 

It is claimed that the distance from Chinese or 

*® Caused by the brush fires on the railroad lots. In this conflagration 
several lives and $800,000 worth of property were lost. At least 3,000 per- 
sons were rendered homeless. S. F. Chronicle, June 14, 1886. For description, 
see Id., June 15, 1886. A few weeks later a large fire occurred at Victoria. 
Id., Sept. 3, 1886. 



RAILROAD FACILITIES. 759 

Japanese ports to Liverpool by way of the Canadian 
Pacific is from 1,000 to 1,200 miles nearer than by 
other Pacific railroads. Moreover, vessels bound, let 
us say, with cargoes of tea from Canton to Victoria 
would, while in the trade-winds, take about the same 
course as if bound for San Francisco; but tJiose des- 
tined for the former port would save about 700 miles 
of sea route, in addition to a considerable saving in 
port charges and wharfage. From Vancouver to 
IMontreal by rail the distance is 2,905 miles, and 
from San Francisco to New York by the Central 
and Union Pacific it is 3,363; thus in the transit of 
the cargo there would be a further saving of 458 
miles. The dominion government has determined to 
establish a steamship line between Liverpool and 
Quebec in summer, and between Liverpool, Halifax, 
and Portland, Maine, in winter."** Arrangements 
have also been made for a service between San Fran- 
cisco and the western terminus of the Canadian Pa- 
cific, the traffic to be under the entire control of the 
company. It is claimed, also, notwithstanding state- 
ments to the contrary, tliat the line can be operated 
throughout its entire length every day in the year.''^ 
Finally, it is probable that a line of British mail 
steamers will be established between Vancouver and 
ports in China, Japan, and Australia, and that this 
line will be subsidized by the British govormnent. 
Thus it will be seen that the Canadian Pacific is by 
no means an insignificant rival for the transconti- 
nental traffic of North America. 

In this relation other factors must also be consid- 
ered. Tlie Canadian Pacific is virtually national jirop- 

*" Circulars were addressed to steamship owners in Oct. 1886, asking for 
tenders for a weekly mail .service. Tlie contract was to be for ten years, the 
vessels to have a speed of not less tiian fifteen knots, au<l tlie contractors 
must not discriminate against Canadian freight. /</., Oct. 24, 1SS(3. 

*' Letter of C. Van Horn, vice-i)r(sident Can. I'ac. R. R., in I>1., Feb. 18, 
1886. Mr Horn states that a very huge amount of money has been exiicndod 
witli this purpose in view. 'On our main line,' lie writes, ' from QucIkjc to 
Canmore in tlic Rocky Mountauis, whicli is as far as Me have hem .-nerating 
the line this winter, a distance of 2,500 miles, we have not bocu obliged to 
cancel a single train on account of snow or any other reason.' 



7G0 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

erty — ^the property of the dominion of Canada — and, 
as the reader is aware, government railways seldom 
earn more than nominal dividends. In Great Britain, 
whence the greater portion of the capital for this pro- 
ject was derived, and where railroads were built bj^" 
private enterprise, four and a half per cent is consid- 
ered a good return on ordinary stock, and on preferred 
stock less than four per cent. In Australia, where the 
railroads were built by government, the returns are 
probably between two and three per cent on the capi- 
tal invested. Encumbered with the huge load of debt 
which the dominion government incurred by its sub- 
sidies, at least working expenses must be earned, and 
as soon as possible some reasonable interest on the 
outlay. But as yet the line runs for the most part 
through a solitude, though a solitude fertile in agri- 
cultural and mineral resource. 

To earn expenses merely, and to build up a business 
that gives prospect of moderate dividends, it may 
be necessary to enter into aggressive competition 
with other transcontinental lines. The road is well 
equipped; the rolling stock, especially the passenger- 
cars, is of excellent quality, and in all the provinces 
the line has naturally absorbed the bulk of the traffic 
which was formerly in the hands of American railway 
companies. During the summer of 1886, freight by 
way of St Paul was taken for Chicago and points on 
the Missouri Biver at from $10 to $12 per ton, and 
during the same year the Canadian Pacific offered to 
convey farming produce and ore, whether for assay or 
working, from Savona's Ferry and intervening stations 
to Port Moody at $4 per ton — a rate which would en- 
able miners to forward ores to San Francisco at $6 per 
ton.^^ At such rates it would appear that there should 
be no great difficulty in obtaining traffic. First-class 
fares from San Francisco or Port Moody to New 
York were in November 1886 $70, against $81 from 

^^The rate on canned goods was $11 a ton, and by other lines $18. Id., 
Aug. 29, 1886. 



TELEaRAPH SYSTEM. 7GI 

San Francisco over tlie Central or Southern Pacific. 
The trip by the northern Hne possesses at least the 
cliarni of novelty, and many who liave already trav- 
elled over the Central and Southern routes will take it 
for that reason; the more so as the province of Britisli 
Columbia presents scenery of surpassing beauty and 
grandeur. In conclusion, the Canadian Pacific is out of 
debt, or very nearly so,^^ and considering the low rates 
of wages prevailing in Canada, and the low prices of 
material and su]i[)lies, the working expenses of the 
road will be considerably smaller in proportion than 
those of American railways. 

In 1886, the immense telegraph system of the 
company, extending from Montreal to the Pacific 
Ocean, was completed, and connection made with 
American lines. United with the Atlantic cable at 
Halifax, as proposed, British Columbia will be placed 
in telegraphic communication with the British pos- 
sessions in the East, soundings having already been 
taken between A^ancouver Island and Japan. 

Fears have been expressed that the establishment 
of a British steamship between China and the Pacific 
coast may result in a large importation of coolies. 
This would seem improbable, in view of the fact that 
under the Chinese regulation act a tax of $50 is ct)l- 
lected on each Chinese passenger before he is allowed 
to land. The people of British Columbia are as much 
opposed to Chinese labor as are those of California, 
but as yet there has been little anti-Chinese agita- 
tion.^ When, however, it was ascertained that one 
of the Mexican states was in need of coolie labor, 



■'^ In ISSG the company owed the government $-20, 000, (XX), an.l it w.-us pro- 
posed to settle the chum by cancelling .?10,OUO,000 wortli of its land grant, 
and the monf)poly clause of its charter, giving the compauy exclusive righU 
ill the Nortliwest for a term of twenty years. Ottaioa Times, in ,!>'. /'. V/im,,., 
April 12, 1S8G. , , , , • ••.,., 

^*0n the 7th of September, 1885, a body of workmg men \nHited the va- 
rious establishments where Cl.inese were employed, and deman.led w..rk. 
The proprietors refused, except the owner of a shoe factor)-, who, knowing 
that there were no Clunese in the crowd, oflered an advance of 'Jo per cent 
on the wages paid to Chiuameu. <S. F. Chivii., Sept. 9, 1885. 



702 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

offers were at once made to the authorities to supply 
them with all that they needed, and on their own 
terms. 

As to the affairs of government, there is little more 
to be said. Of late, except for a collision between 
the dominion and provincial police '^^ in September 
1885, and a slight Indian disturbance in the northern 
part of the province in SejDtember'^^ of the same year, 
the placid current of events has seldom been dis- 
turbed by even a ripple of excitement. As in most 
British colonies, the people are contented and prosper- 
ous, receiving absolute protection under the law and 
from the law, living in perfect security as to rights, 
person, and property, and secure also from all danger 
of legal oppression. 

Some dissatisfaction has been caused by the want 
of reciprocal action on the part of the American gov- 
ernment as to the extradition treaty. In 1886 a noted 
criminal," who had escaped from British Columbia, 
was discharged by the United States court, although 
a deputy attorney-general was sent to watch the case 
for the crown. On the other hand, all prisoners .de- 
manded by the United States for extradition have 
been promptly surrendered. A fugitive convict cap- 
tured some years ago on British soil was sent back at 
an expense of $2,700 to the provincial government; 
but in 1886 this sum had not been refunded by the 
United States. 

Another question which has given rise to some dis- 
satisfaction is the seizure in 1886 of British vessels 
engaged in seal-hunting in the Bering Sea. The 
crews of the vessels thus seized laid their case before 
the minister of marine and fisheries at Victoria, and 
their statement was forwarded to the home govern- 

^* Caxisecl through the seizure by the dominion police of liquors held by 
parties having a provincial license. For description, see Id., Sept. 5, 1885. 

*^ Among the Metlakatlas, who refused to permit the civil engineer to sur- 
vey the Indiau reserve on behalf of the dominion government, claiming that 
the entire country was theirs. S. F. Bull., Sept. 16, 1886. 

" Known as Bull Dog Kelly. S. F. Chron., Feb. 15, 1886 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 7G3 

ment for consideration. By act of congress, dated 
July 27, 1868, it was made a penal ofience to kill fur- 
bearing animals within the limits of Alaska or Alaskan 
waters. But how shall the phrase Alaskan waters he 
interpreted ? During the earlier period of the Russian 
American company's occupation it was alleged that all 
the waters between Alaska and Siberia belonged to 
Bussia; but that country did not succeed in making 
good its claim. Moreover, by referring to the impe- 
rial oukaz, granted to the company in 1799, and quoted 
in my History of Alasha,^^ it will be found that no 
mention is made of any special rights in the Bering 
Sea, or even in inland waters, but only to "use and 
profit," in certain territory, "by everything which has 
been or shall be discovered on the surface and in the 
bosom of the earth." In 1867 this territory was trans- 
ferred to the United States, the consideration being 
$7,200,000. The dividing line, defined merely to in- 
clude all of this territory, runs northward into the 
Arctic, and southward into the north Pacific Ocean; 
but it does not appear that by the payment of this 
sum of $7,200,000 the United States acquired an ex- 
clusive right to the Arctic Sea and the north Pacific 
Ocean. ^'^ 

68 Pp. 379-80. 

"" lu the JIaratime Matters on Ike Northwe-tl Coast, and Ajfalrnofthe Had- 
son's Daif Com}>any in Earl 1/ 7Vwe^-, by James Coo/'cr, JIS., 1 have becu T/.r- 
iiished with mucli valuahle iufoniiation. Commencing witli the year 1S44, at 
which date Mr Cooper, a native of \Volverhanipton, England, enteixd the 
service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and when the throe supply -shijis 
Vancouver, Cowlitz, and Columliawcrc the only regular traders, his uarrutive 
is con lined until the death of (Jo v. Seymour in ISOU. 

Biilish Columbia Skatrhes, MS., is the title of a work also relating in part 
to mariLime affairs. One of these sketches is by Herbert (Jeorge Lewis, who 
sailed for Vancouver in 1S4S, as an officer ui the Cou-Utz, ami afterward found 
employment on board various craft. He has supplied me with many items 
conjerniug the com[iany'3 ships and the men-of-war stationeil ou the coast. 
At this date the vessels of the H. B. Co. traded \vitli several countries. Tiio 
Cowlilz, for instance, after discharging cargo at Fort Vancouver, in l64S, 
loaded with wheat for Sitka, and thence sailed for the Hawaiian Islands, with 
lumber and lish, returning witii a freiglit of sugar and molasses to Furt \'au- 
couvcr, wlience she was despatched with a cargo of furs to Lmidon. Of 
ilichacl and Robert Muir, of whom the .S'/.t^/jc.'* supply partial memoii-s, men- 
tion is made ou p. 193-4, 255, this vol. Willia.n John Macdonald, a native of 
tlie Isle of Skye, also came out to Vancouver in the company's service, lantl- 
Uig at Victoria in ISol. Ordered to San Juan Isiaud during this ) ear, to take 



764 IIS'DUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

charge of a party of French Canadians employed in salmon-curinsr, and being 
still in the company's service at the time when the forbearance of Admiral 
Baynes alone prevented war between Gz'cat Britain and America, his account 
of the Srn Juan diliicultj^ already recorded in these pages, is of special value. 
In 1330 Mr Macdonald was elected a member of the legislative assembly of 
Vancouver for the Sooke district. 

In Palmer's Wagon Trains, MS., I have been furnished with an inter- 
Cotiug account of a journey madc'by Joel Palmer, from Independence, Mo., to 
Oregon in lS4o. A native of Canada, though of American parentage, Gen. 
Palmer, when grov.n to manhood, found employment in Penn. on public 
works and canals, being afterward placed in charge of a '25-mile section of 
t!;e Pena. canal. lu 18-14 he was elected a member of the Penn. legislature. 
During his journey across the plains and mountains he took notes of the 
road and disamces traversed, which were siibsequeutly embodied in a Guide- 
Book for Err.igrartU, published in Cincinnati, llesic'ing for a brief space in 
Victoria, at the time when Douglas was the leading spirit on the island and 
mainLmd, he has supplied me with items of value concerning this period. 

lo the Characteri ties of James Douglas, MS., by E. Cridge, I am also in- 
debted for a description of the means whereby this skilful ruler of men, ably 
seconded by A. F. Pemberton, whom he appointed commissioner of police, 
made English law respected and obeyed during the troublous times of the 
gold excitement. 

Of the few works thus far published concerning British Columbia, mention 
has for the most part been made. In the Facts and Figures Rel«ting to V. I. 
and B. C, hji J. Despard Pemberton, London, 1800, we have a brief description 
of the general condition cf the country, its fauna, flora, and geology, of the 
progress and commerce of the two colonies, with their principal settlements, 
and of the society which they contained, with some excellent advice to intend- 
ing emigrants. 

The Naturalist in V. I. and B. C, by John Keast Lord, F. Z. S., in two 
vols, London, 18GG, besides the natural liistoi'y of the island and mainland, 
contains some interesting descriptions of travel, sport, and adventure in tlie 
noith-west. In the appendix is a detailed list of the zoological collections 
made by Mr Lord, while employed as naturalist to the boundary commission. 

In 'J'ravels in B. C. and Alaska, b>j Neicton H. Chittendon, Victoria, 188'2, 
are brieQy outlined the resources and capabilities of the province, and there 
is also some mention of vaiious settlements and industries, with an account 
of the railroad, as matters stood with this enterprise at that time. 

In the Bcports of P-rogress of the Geological Survey of Canada are contained 
Se'wyn's Journal and Report of Prelimiyutry Explorat.'ons in British Columbia; 
liichardson on. the Conl-Fields of Vancouver and Qu/en Charlotte Islands, with 
map of former, an app. by J. W. Dawson on fossil plants, another by Billings 
^ ojv niesozoic fossils, and a third by Harrington on the coals of the west coast; 
S'-lw]/n''s Ohse/vafioiis in the Northjcest Territory, with app. by B. J. Harring- 
ton on western coals; Richardson on Gtologiccd Explorations In British Colum- 
bia; VVhlteaves' Notes on the Cretaceous Fossils collected by Mr Jas Richardson 
at Vancouver and the adjacent Islands, %vith lithographed plate; Sehvyn's 
Report on Explorations in British Columbia, with appendices by Macoun, 
Whiteaves, and Le Conte; Dawson's Report on Explorations in British Colum- 
bia; Scudder on the Insects of the Tertiary Beds at Quesnel, British Columbia.; 
Uaicsoii's General Notes on the Mines and Minerals of Economic Value of British 
Colninbiu, with a List of Localities, reprinted with additions and alterations 
from the railway report, 1877; Whiteares' Notes on some Jurassic Fossils col- 
kcted by Mr G. M. Dau-son in the Coast Ravge of British Columbia; Richard- 
son's Report on the Coed-Fields of Nanuimo, Comox, Cowitchan, Burrard Inlet, 
and Sooke, British Columbia, with three illustrations and a map; Sciidder's Ad- 
ditions to the Insect-Fauna of the Tertiary Beds at Quesnel, British Columbia; 
Damson's Preliminary Report on the Physiccd and Geological Features of the 
Southern Portion of the Literior of British Columbia; Dawson's Report on the 
Queen Charlotte Islands, and app. A to G — ap. A relating to the Haidahs; B 



BIBLIOGRArHY. 7G5 

to their vocabulary; C, by J. F. Witeaves, to some marine invertcbrata from 
tlie Queen UharloLte Islands; D, liy 8. J. 8mith, to Crustacea from tlic Quoeu 
Charlotte and Vancouver Islands; E, by J. Macoun, containing list cf plants 
from the Queen Charlotte Islands; F, meteorological observations; and Ci, 
notes on latitude and longitude; JJaicaon's 1,'cport on an Erploraiuui from I'oit 
Simpson, on tJie Pacific i'outit, to Edmonton, on the Sn-Latr/iciran, with app. 
containing list of plants collected, and n;eteorological observations in tlie 
northern part of British Columbia, tlie Peace River district, and between 
Edmonton and Manitoba, together with notes on latitude :,nd longitude; Com- 
parative Vocabularies of the Indian Tribes of British Colnnd/ia, with a mcp 
illustrating distribution, by W. FraserTolmic and George M. Dawson; J'ljiort 
on. the Polijzoa of the Quren Charlotte Isla,ids, liy Thos Hincks. reprinted fioni 
the Anncds and Marjazine of Natiual Jlistorg, London, Dec. ISS'J, June IhS.'J, 
^lareh 1S84; Me.sbzoic Fossils, by J. E. Whiteaves. Vol. i., parts i.-iii., wiili 
lithographed plates, jSIontreal, 1S7G, 1879, 18S-1-. For list of geological ami 
other maps, see List of Publications of the Geoloc/ical and JS'atuntl History 
Survey of Canada, Ottawa, ICSt, passim. British North America is the title 
of a vol. published l)y the Keligious Tract Society of London. The writer 
resided in several of the provinces, and had advantages of making himself 
acquainted with their condition. He likewise drew much information from 
Blue Books issued by the Canadian govt, and parliamentary papers. It 
briefly touches upon the early history and discoveries of several portions of 
the territory, and aflbrds considerable statistical information. A good deal 
of the book, however, is about the aborigines and Canada, not serviceable for 
historical purposes, and the hand and style of the missionary is traceable 
throughout. 

Of the various guide-books, directories, and prospectuses of mining and 
other associations, published from time to time in the colonies or the pro\ ince, 
no further mention is required in these pages. On the 29th of October, J SGI, 
the colonial government of V. I. by public notice invited essays on the re- 
sources of the island and the advantages which it offercil to settlers. A pre- 
mium of £30 was offered for the best essay, and £10 for the second best. The 
competing essays were to be sent to the colonial secretary sealed, no name or 
mark being attached whereby the authors might be known to the ailjuilica- 
tors. To the manuscript, however, must be afiixed a distinctive motto, whose 
duplicate should be written on the outside of a sealed envelope, witliin wliioli 
the name of the author should be written. All essays received were to re- 
main the propei'ty of the government, but the sealed envelopes of iinsucc-ess- 
ful candidates were to be returned unopened if desired. A board, consisting 
of C. T. Woods, W. F. Tolniie, and G. M. Sproat, was appointed to decide 
upon the relative merits of the compositions. In accordance with this an- 
nouncement, several essays were received, and after careful examination the 
prize was awar<led to Cliarles Forbes. Mr Forbes' production was printed in 
1802 l)y the colonial government, under the title of Prize Essaij: Vaiicourcr 
Island; Its l,'csou7-ccs and Ca]}ahilitics as a Colony. S5 patjcK, Svo. It is divided 
into five parts, embracing climate, phj'sical features, society, products, and 
prospects. It is statistical rather than historical, and possesses tran^iient 
ratlier than permanent interest. Desultory in its construction, the searcher 
in any one branih of information is obliged to glean from every pat'o and 
closely to regard every paragraph. Yet the pamplilet answered very well the 
jiurpose for which it was written. It seems tliat the mainland was expecting 
about the same time a similar ri'SumC-, setting forth its good qualities, but 
was disappointed. None of the attempts made did justice to the cause. In 
this emergency, following tlie example of the island, rewards were offered, on 
the nth of March, ISG2, of like amounts for like productions, subject to the 
same conditions. As the result of this action, there appeared, priutt-d at the 
Royal I'ngineer Press at New Westminster in \S'o.\, British Columbia: An 
Essay by the l!ev. R. C. Lundin Brown, M. A., Miiiijitrr of St Marys, LiUoocf, 
an unbound octavo of ninety-seven pages. Tlie second chapter opens with a 
description of Frascr River and New Westminster, written by Sheepshanks, 



766 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

Brown's production is mnch clearer, more comprehensive, and yet more con- 
cise than that of Forbes. In 1S7"2 A. C. Anderson published a government 
prize essay, entitled The Dominion at the West, embracing all points of inter- 
est touched by any of his predecessors, and covering both island and main- 
land. To a thorough knowledge of the country Mr Anderson united fine 
literary tastes and much experience as a writer. Hence we find his woik in 
every respect wellnigh perfect in its way. In the latter part of 1878 I wrote 
Mr Anderson for intormation further than that in my possession concerning 
his j^rize essay entitled The Dominion of the We^t; a Brief Description of the 
Province of British Columbia, its Climate and Resources. Government Prize 
Essay of 1S72, and published at Victoria the same year. This is one of a series 
of excellent essays on the features of the country and its attractions, written 
and printed under the auspices of government. I also asked Mr Anderson 
concerning the other prize essays. He answered me the 30th of December: 
' I nither think that the prizes for V. I. and B. C. were offered simultaneously 
at the time you state; and that the necessary competition not having been 
elicited for the B. C. essay, the prize was not adjudged, and a new invitation 
was issued. This elicited Mr Brown's essay, which took the first prize. I 
myself wrote, too, on this occasion, my essay being, with necessary altera- 
tions to suit the time, almost a counterpart in chief particulars of my last 
published essay. To my production of 18G2 the second prize of £10 was 
awarded, but it was not printed. I am not aware of any other jpublications 
of a local nature save two or three tours, chiefly of geographical import, 
printed by ofiicers of the royal engineers, entirely of an official nature. In 
ISGS I completed my large map of B. C, scale ten miles to the inch, which 
comprised all that was then known of the country, including my own notes 
and those of the late Mr Black. A descriptive treatise, chiefly on natural 
history, accompanied this. The whole was accepted by the government of 
the period, but sa\e as afTording a foundation for other maps since published, 
my map has never been brought forward. Indeed, the more accurate surveys 
effected by the railway parties render it out of date for utility.' For further 
items concerning Mr Anderson, see pp. 158-9, 1G9-70, 182-4, this vol. ; and for 
biography and decease, 8. F. Alta, May II, 18S4. Alexander Alien, after 
mining in Cal. for six years, removed to Victoria in 18G0, and in 18G6-7 edited 
the Cariboo Sentinel. Allen^s Cariboo, MS., 1. Dr Baillie, an old resident of 
Victoria, was drowned by the capsizing of the brig Florentia, near Cape Flat- 
tery. Barrett- LenarcVs Travels in B. C, 113-14. London, 1SG2. The au- 
thor of this last-mentioned work came from England in 1859, and passed 
nearly two years in V. I. and the mainland, sailing round the former in a 
small yacht which he brought with him. The book relates mainly to his own 
observations and adventures, and contains little of historic value. John Bis- 
sell, a pioneer, for decease of, in 1883, see Sac. Record-Union, Feb. G, 1883. 
Robert Brown, in his Vancouver Island Explor(dion, Victoria, 18G4, has 
written the narrative of an expedition, undertaken for the discovery of gold, 
to Cowichin Lake, Barclay Sound, San Juan Harbor, Sooke, Leech River, 
and various points on the island, a reward of $5,000 having been offered for 
such discovery by the colonial government. C. C. Coffin, in The Seat of Empire, 
Boston, 1870, gives an account of a tour in the northern U. S. and B. C, 
with observations on the advantages of the north-west as to settlement, soil, 
mining, and farming. Nicholas Cooke, a native of Germany, came to B. C. 
in 1858, being one of the first miners on the Fraser. His decease occurred at 
his home at Plumper Pass, Oct. 18, 1870. Seattle Intelligencer, Oct. 27, 1870. 
K. Cornwallis, author of The New El Dorado, London, 1858, arrived in Vic- 
toria in June 1858, and after making a short trip to the Fraser diggings, 
considered himself qualified to write a book about the two colonies, which he 
did, in a i-ambling style, som.ewhat after the fashion of a cheap Sunday news- 
paper. H. C. Courterey, a native of Dublin, arrived at Victoria in ISGl in 
the Kaffir Chief from London, and tried his fortune at the Cariboo nanes. 
Courterey' s Min. B. C, MS., 1. W. F. Crate, an employ (5 of the H. B. Co., 
.first crossed the Rocky Mountains in 1828, and again in 1850, on this occa- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 767 

Bion in coirpany witli Ponglns and others who afterward became prominent 
ill the service. lie early built u saw and grist mill at Fort Vancouver. After 
4;> years' experience of frontier and colonial life, he died at Cowicliin during 
the year of the confederation. Objmpia Transcript, Oct. 7, 1871; DrU. Colo- 
nist, Oct. 8, lb71. George Dixon, for 18 years in the service of the II. B. Co., 
died at Victoiia in 1S59. Thomas Eurle, a native of Lansdowne, Out., 
reached Victori.., in 1862, via the Isthmus, and opened business as a wholesale 
grocer, becoming one of the best and most intelligent of citizens. Jules Fery, 
in his Gold Searc/ies, MS. , furnishes a brief account of IJie Cariboo and Cassia r 
mines during the winter of 18G1-2, a portion of which was passed by the 
author in huutiug for gold. 

Simon Eraser is the author of an OriginalJonrnal, April 12 to July 18, ISOG, 
MS.; Id., May oO to June 10, 1808, MS., and of Letters /mm the Uocky Mvuii- 
tahi'^, Aug. 1, 1806, to Feb. 10, 1807, MS., the former giving a narrative of a 
journey to the head v.atcrs of Peace Pdver, to a post on Trout Lake, and 
theuce of a southerly exploration for the purpose of examining the country 
and discovering sites for new trading j osts. In the latter is a description of 
the progress of Fraser, Stuart, and Quesnel, down the great river of the 
mainland, and through the country of the Chilkotins. The dangerous charac- 
ter of the rapids, and the difficulties of each day's journey, arc lully recorded. 
George Gladman, whose father was a chief factor to the II. B. Co., was em- 
ployed by the company as a clerk between 1814 and 1836, at the latter date 
receiving a commission as chief trailer. Appointed ttore-kceper and account- 
anc at Moose and York factories, he resigned in 184o, was recom missioned 
live years later, and again resigning iu 18oo, retired to his farm near the set- 
tlement of Uoic. n<'i)t If. B. Co., July, Aug., 1857, 330. G. M. Grant, the 
author of Ocean to Occui, London, 1873, was secretary to the expedition made 
i 1 the interests of the overland railway in 1S72, his party following about the 
same route as' the one taken by Milton and Cheadle. The book consists 
mainly of a diary of his journey, with the adventures incidental thento, and 
contains little inlorniatiou of value. Tlien there was a Grant — .James, I tiiiuk, 
was his name — a native of Canada, and fcr several years stationed at Fort 
Hall, iu the service of the II. B. Co. He was 'rather a mediocrity,' says 
Roberts, 'fond of tipple, and a very large, I may say an extra fine-looking, 
man. It is related that, when attired in uniform, he was the observed of all 
observers by the sex.' liccollectiou.% MS., 51. Ebey speaks of him as 'a One 
specimen of the old English gentleman, active as a cat at 70 years of age, and 
with hair and beard Mdiite as suow.' Joiirncd, MS., 197. Hardisty, in 1834, 
clerk in charge at Fort Yukon, was in 1867 commander of the Mackenzie 
River district, northern department. D. W. Harmon, a native of Vt, and a 
chief factor of the II. B. Co., was in charge of Fort St James, in 1811-17. 
His diary or journal was pablished in book form, and the frequency witlx 
\\ hich it has been quoted is some evidence of its merit. Jerome and Thad- 
deus Hai-per, Americans by birth, were for many years the proprietors of a 
grist-mill at Clinton, which supplied the Caril)Oo minors with Hour. On the 
decease of his elder brother, about 1875, Thaddeus Harper took charge of the 
business, and besides his other interests, was in 1878 the largest owner of 
live-stock in B. C. Good's Brit. Col., MS., 83. J. S. Ilclmcken, a native of 
London, England, and by profession a medical practitioner, arrived at Victoria 
iu 1830, and with the exception of a few months in 1870, continued to reside 
iu the capital. In 1852 he married a daughter of Sir James Douglas, and in 
18GS was elected a member of the legislative council. Further mention may 
be found on p. 243-6, this vol. W. H. Hooper, in his Ten Months Among 
the Tents of the Tuski, London, 1853, gives an account of the expedition of 
II. M. S. 'Pl-vcr iu search Sir John Franklin and his party in 1848-51. 
Though dcscrii)tive mainly of the Eskimo tribes, Arctic exploration, and the 
incidtTiits of the voyage, the work also contains information as to several of 
tho II. B. Co.'s posts. J. S. Kenneil}', one of the earliest pionecra of B. C., 
anil for 20 years acting as surgeon to the II. B. Co. at Fort Vancouver, Nis- 
qually, and Nanaimo, was also a member of the Vancouver house of assembly. 



768 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AND FINANCE. 

He died at Victoria in the spring of 1859. W, Kane, a native of Ireland, 
eerved for 26 years under the H. B. Co., and being i-ecoinmissioned in 1846, 
after a visit home was appointed, in 1850, to the charge of Fort Liard. Kane's 
Wa7iderinr]» of an Artid, G8-9; Hooper's Tents of the Tns'kl, 387-8. 

A. McDonakl, chief factor of tlie H. B. Co., was married to the daughter 
of a Blackfoot sachem, by whom he had a child, named Christine, wlio, when 
she grew to womanhood, was described as 'a very modest, well-bred, and fine- 
locking young woman.' She was an expert hoi'sewomau, riding astride, and 
with a scrape buckled round her waist. McDonald was a man of remarkably 
fine physique, six feet high, erect and of stately carriage. His long, flowing 
hair hung down over his shoulders in Indian fashion. He spent most of his 
time iu the saddle, and would never get into a v.hcelcd vehicle. Puf/et Sound, 
MS., 10-11. There is a McDougall mentioned iu Whymper's AlafJca, 251, as 
in command at Fort Yukon in June 1SG7. For mention of Thomas McKay. 
son of Alexander McKay of Tonquin massacre fame, see Anderson's North 
Coast, MS., 74-5. John McLean, in his Notes of a Twenty-Jive Years' Service 
in the Hudson's Bay Territory, 2 vols, London, 1849, treats mainly of trap- 
ping and trading experiences in Vancouver and New Caledonia. Sir Richard 
Maitland, in ISGl in command of the flag-ship Bacchante, at Esqnimalfc, is 
mentioned by Mr Good as an officer remarkable for his strict discipline; in 
consequence of which, twenty of his men, including warrant-officers, deserted 
the vessel and escaped across the Sound. Brit. Col., MS., 2. W. Mitchell 
was in 1860 chief trader in charge at Fort Rupert. UurreU Lenard's Travels 
in Brit. Col., 68. For further items, see Brit. Coloni-t, Jan. 13, 1S7G; Victo- 
ria Standard, Jan. 19, 1S7G; Willamette Farmer, Feb. 18, 1876. 

W. S. Mitchell, formerly one of the proprietors of the British Colonist, was 
killed in 1SG7, by falling down a mining shaft at Cariboo. S. F. Call, June 9, 
1SG7. William Moore first attempted toruuasteamer uptheStikeenin 1SG2, 
but suffered shipwreck. Meeting with success at the Cassiar mines, he built 
another steamboat. Allen's Cariboo, M:S., 10. Mr Reynolds settled as a farmer 
iu the Eraser Valley, west of Okanagan, in 1859. Two years later his land 
produced abundant crops. Donglas, Private Papn-s, first series, ilS., 149. 
Rocky Mountain Journal, Dec. 20, 1805, to Feb. 28, 1806, MS., gives mei'ely a 
i-ecord of the daily labor and routine at one of the Northwest Company's out- 
lying forts, and is otherwise entirely uninteresting. II. R. Schoolcraft, in his 
Personal Memoirs, Phil., 1851, has scattered thi'oughout his narrative a few 
brief notices of the fur-traders, and their mode of traffic. His experience was, 
for the most part, limited to the Canadian frontier, near the lower end of Lake 
Superior, and at Michilmackenack, where he was stationed as Indian agent. 
Thomas Spence, a native of Dundee, reached Victoria in May 1853, and soon 
afterward began business as a contractor, building the portion of the Cariboo 
road between Boston Bar and Lyttoii wichiu four months, and employing on 
this work nearly GOO men. In connection with Trutch, he obtained the con- 
tract for building the Alexandria bridge, and superintended many other public 
works, among them t'le removal of the Sister rocks in the Eraser, and the 
Beaver rock in Victoria harbor. Vowell's Minii^g Districts, MS., 2]-30. G. 
il. Sproat, in his Scenes and Stialies of Savage Life, treats mainly of the tribes 
in the vicinity of Barclay Sound, and on the west coast of V. I., their cus- 
toms, characteristics, language, etc., as they appeared to him during a resi- 
dence of six years, lieginning Aug. 18G9, while in charge of the settlement of 
Alberni. Briti.^h Columhia, information for Fmigrarits, issued under the direc- 
tion of the agent-general for the province, London, 1873, by the same author, 
is a model emigration pamphlet, and gives more exact and condensed infor- 
mation than any similar work at that time extant. Mr Tait v.as in 1872 
agent for the H. B, Co. at Kamloop. Francis Tarbell, a native of Nev.' York, 
arrived in Victoria in July ] 858, bringing a stock of goods from S. F. , on which 
he realized a fair profit. About 1867 he bought an interest in the steamer 
George S. Wright, which ran between Portland, Victoria, and Sitka, in oppo- 
sition to Ben Holliday's line, to which he sold out, some two years later, 
afterward settling at Olympia, where, in 1878, he was territorial treasurer. 



BIBLIOGIlArilY. 769 

TnrheVs Yidorm, ^MS., 1-10; Olympian Cluh Cowermtiovs, MR., 17. Jolm 
Toil, of whom full nicntioii is made on p. 13S-5G, this vol., tlied in lt>S"J. 5. 
F. Call, Sept. 2, ISS2. P. F. Tyler, in his JJislorical View cj ihe Proijnifia of 
Di'<rovery, Edinburgh, IS.'iS, merely gives a compilation from the original 
accounts of the discoverers themselves. A. W. Vowell, for several yeuisj^old 
comniissioucr iu various districts, and author of Miniii'j DiMrirt.^ <J Uril. Vol., 
MS., is a reliable authority as to the gold regions, to which the subject-matter 
of his manuscript solely refers. Ahred Waduington visited the mines and 
wrote a brochure of 40 pages, entitled The Fraser Minrx Vindhated; or. The 
JliMory of Foiir Months. Price fifty cents. It is printed in Victoria by P. 
Ue Garro, Wharf street, and the preface is dated Nov. 13, 1S5S. The 'his- 
tory,' as its title indicates, is an argument in behalf of the mines, which a 
simple statement of their product would much more satisfactorily explain; 
and but for the fact that business revived just before the publication of the 
book, one might be led to believe that its issue had something to do with tlio 
improvement of the times. In his preface Waddington claims this to bu ' the 
tirst book published on Vancouver Island,' but corrects the mistake before 
publication in favor of the JRnlefi of Practice. . .in the Sujrrcvie Court of Civil 
Justice, printed one or two months previous at the Gazette office. He might 
also have rightly added another, a small pamphlet of Proclamations relative 
to the government of British Columbia issued from the Gazette press, sliortly 
after the Hides of Practice, and so have placed his book third. A tract ad- 
dressed to the colonists of Vancouver Island, published at Victoria in ISZ'J, 
and entitled The Necessity of Reform, was merely a tirade against the re- 
stricted franchisCj and the petty infelicities of the day. The tirst edition of 
the Sketch of the Propot>ed Line of Overland Railroad throuf/h Rritish North 
America, Ottawa, 1871, by the same author, was published in London in 18G9. 
Although Waddington had travelled over but a snail portion of the route of 
the Canadian Pacific, he was well acquainted with the configuration of tho 
country, and, including data from published and other surveys, made an ex- 
cellent preliminary report, which was probably not without influence in tho 
embodiment of the railway terms. For further mention of his career, see 
Brit. Colonist, Oct. 22, 1SG7, March 6, 27, 1872. Frederick Whympcr, who 
came from England in 18G2, passed three winters in Victoria, and travelled 
tlirough the interior of Vancouver and along the coast of the mainland. 
Joining the Western Union Telegraph expedition under Capt. Eulklcy, an 
account of which is given in my llidory of Alaaha, p. 57G-S, he set forth for 
northern Alaska, his party journeying overland in sledges from Unalachleet, 
on Norton Sound, to Fort Nulato, and thence iu canoes to Fort Yukon. His 
various journeys, with their incidents, are described in an interesting volume 
entitled Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Ala-d-a, of which the first 
live chapters arc devoted to Vancouver Island and British Columbia. 

Books are written mostly in praise of men or things. We have many 
biographies of Christ, very few of Belial. This is a hopeful feature of human 
nature. The bad we heartily denounce, but we do not care to dwell upon it. 
Colonists ixirticularly seldom write except in commendation of their country; 
and few, who are merely travellers, take the trouble to print a fat octavo in 
proof of what nature has wrongfully done, or has failed to do, for a country. 
Most of the books on British Columlna see little but the good; therefore, it 
startles one somewhat to find a writer who discovers little that is not bad. 
If the country presents itself to the mind of D. G. F. Macdonald, before 
mentioned, with quite an alphabet of honors following, only in rcpulsivo 
shadows, so does not the author of this man's works appear to himself. ' To 
advance opinions on the resources and capabilities of our colonial possessions,' 
he is abundantly ' qualified by education, knowledge, and experience.' Had 
the country any good thing ? ' I venture to believe I possess the quali licationa 
which alone can enable a man to discern these important characterit-tics. and 
to arrive at a just estimate of them, since the subject has formed tlic educa- 
tion of my youth and the study of my maturer years.' To an audience before 
whom he is delivering a lecture on British Columbia, he says: ' \ ou ai-e not 
Hist. Ki::r. C.i.. 4J 



770 INDUSTRIES, COMilERCE, AKD FmAITCE. 

listening to a man who never saw a blade of grass grow, or slept iindcr the 
impervious shades of the eternal forest.' The wild ass might advance the 
same argument, and M'ith as crushing an effect. Then follows a page of his 
accomplishments, which, however entertaining, I cannot recite. I'he country 
he calls pictm-esque but gloomy. ' British Columbia is a miserable country!^' 
he groans. That throughout this wide domain there are ' no babbling brooks, 
no soothing shades, no softly swelling hills,' is news indeed to those who have 
spent their lives there. ' But in their stead streams white with foam, rushing 
along between cliffs, down ravines, and over water-falls in deafening thun- 
der; tremendous precipices, j-awning gulfs, and naked towering rocks, splin- 
tered with the storms of countless years; boundless foi^ests, fearful in their 
gloom, and fearful in their howling beasts of prey.' Filled in with spectral 
sights and fabulous monsters, such as strange countries are often accredited 
with, by very able writers, we would have a good ghost story to frighten 
children withal. So I might go on thi'ough the whole shallow effusion of this 
egotistical writer. If we believe him, it is a poor field for man or beast. It is 
bad for the healthfial man, and bad for the invalid; bad for the settler, and 
bad even for the student of natural history. ' Victoria is by no means a 
desirable place of residence,' and ' indeed, it is doubtful whether the island 
will ever be able to produce enough for its own consumption.' The flora is 
foi'bidding; the savages are a disgrace to savagism, and the animal kingdom 
to brutes. It seems a pity that so able a man should waste so much time 
over so worthless a subject ! Mr Macdonald has published two works en 
British Columbia, both in London, 1863, one a Lecture, and the other an 
octavo of 524 pages, with xnap, entitled British Culumbia and Vancouver's /n- 
lancl, already noticed on p. 425-6 of this vol. Of these writings Mr. A. C. 
Anderson, who is frequently cited in them as an authority, remarks. Prize 
Essay, 1872, appendix, p. 33, that they 'convey an impression so utterly at 
variance with the observations of others, that, were the contrary not known, 
he might have inferred that the author had never set foot within the prov- 
ince.' And yet Mr Macdonald seems particularly desirous of being believed. 
To"ward the close of his lecture he touchingly asserts: ' I have no interests to 
serve but those of humanity; no feelings to gratify but such as must animate 
the breast of every one who sees hard-working men drawn to their ruin with 
all to lure and none to serve. It is hard to attribute dishonest motives to any 
man, and some have put forth misstatements who ought to be above suspicion; 
but it requires the experience of a practical farmer to form a coiTcct estimate 
of the value of soils, and it requires a lengthened residence, and extensive 
travel through a country, to enable even the farmer, with all his experience, 
to give an opinion at all. Now, none of the gentlemen v/ho have put forth 
such glowing statements are possessed of either of these qualifications. They 
appear to have visited the colonies at the most favorable season, and to have 
relied for the rest upon the reports of residents — men, perhaps, who had spent 
their whole lives in these regions, and had come to think that extreme heat 
in summer and intense cold in winter, varied by alternations of snow and rain 
and fleet and fogs for eight months in the year, formed the natural and uni- 
versal course of the seasons. In no other way can I account for the boldness 
with which assertions have been made which a few months' residence must 
scatter to the winds. But there are men who deserve no such merciful con- 
sideration — harpies who never meant to dwell in the colony — who invested 
their capital in buying up all the best allotments, in order to resell tliem at 
advanced prices to the real settlers. They now find they have made a bad 
speculation, and are eager to dispose of their land; but customers are not 
there, and they neither stick at any falsehood to induce them to come, nor 
care what becomes of them after they have fleeced them. These are the 
parents of the juggling paragraphs which appear from time to time in the 
newspapers, and the no less juggling letters; these are they who ruin colonies 
and colonists; and it is in the hope of keeping the emigrant out of their 
clutches that I have raised my voice, and shall continue to raise it, as long 
as I think I can be of any service to the poor fellows who have to fight this 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 771 

world's hard battle with scanty means.' Mr Macdonald is not alone in his 
condemnation of false statements made concerning this county. Says Mr 
R. Byron Joimson, in his Very Far Wed IiifUcd, p. 277-8, London, I87-2: 'I 
liaveseen many sliamcful accounts published by interested persons from which 
we would imagine tlio country to have been the original site of tlio Garden 
of Eden. The real fact is, that it depends on California and Oregon for al- 
most every pound of flour that is consumed in it; and that compared to these 
neighboring countries it is what I have heard it before described liy a per- 
son who knew it well, a howling wilderness.' Undoubtedly there lias been 
exaggeration. The successful enthusiast will certainly praise, while the 
disappointed will rail. Probably no countries have been more heartily 
cursed than Oregon and California. More men have left Oregon for Pu"et 
Sound than have ever left Puget Sound for Oregon. British Columbia's 
best days have not yet come. Her resources are inexhaustible, and her 
greatest gold discoveries, thus far, as compared with her yet undeveloped 
resources, will be remembered in history only as the little Husli of lSoS-9. 
Very Far West Indeed is a sprightly little book from the sprightly littlo 
mind of R. Byron Johnson. It was printed in London in 1872. Carried 
away by immigration pamphlets and newspaper notices, the author yielded 
to tiie enticements of adventure and started for the new El Dorado. He saw 
many things never seen before or since; he heard dialects as they were never 
before spoken; hence he was constrained to write a book. It is well for those 
who have travelled in the United States by rail twenty-live or fifty thousand 
miles to know at last that 'nearly all American traius'have got a bar' where 
intoxicating drinks arc sold. The chronic national animosity between Britons 
and Americans was illustrated by the shooting of an Englishman by a ' western 
man ' on the Panamil and San Francisco steamer, for celebrating the queen's 
birthday too broadly — an incident to every one else unknown. By the time Mr 
Johnson has readied Victoria he has become so accustomed to the Yankee 
dialect, which he invented while crossing the Isthmus, that he does not now 
hesitate to put it in the mouth indiscriminately of Englishman, Dutchman, and 
African. After numberless perils by sea and land, after undergoing every cx- 
]iericnce written in books, recited round camp-fires, or told under forecastles, 
Indian and bear adventures, robbery and gambling scenes, boiler-bursting, ship- 
wreck, battle, and murder, after having encountered all the varied phenomena 
of success and starvation, tlic author finally returns to England a wiser and 
a better man. Yet, notwithstanding these quite innocent indulgences, of 
which the book is full, and which no intelligent person is expected to believe, 
Mr Johnson has produced a very interesting and valuable book. It has the 
great merit of being natui-al, and I will venture to say that Mr Johnson is not 
only a good friend and a good fellow, but an intelligent, honest man, and a 
good citizen. 

Of many of the pioneers and prominent colonists, want of space forbids me 
to make more than passing mention. Subjoined is a list of some whose names 
have not yet appeared in these pages, together with the sources from which 
information can be obtained as to their arrival, career, or decease, and addi- 
tional items concerning others already noted. 

Vs'illiam Atkinson, Bayleifs Vancouver Island, MS., G; Jos. Austen, Col., 
July 4, 1871; Paul Augar, Standard, July 12, 1876; A. N. Birch, .V. W. 
Bnl. Columbian, June 26, 1867; A. S. Bates, Col, Jan. 8, 1879; Wm Bowdcn, 
/'/ July 20, 30, 1879; Jos. I. Brown, Col., July 10, 1869; Thos Buie, Id., 
Apr. 2:J, 1S73; David Burns, hL, July 31, 1SG6; Jas Bums, Col., Nov. 2G, 
1879; A. T. Bushby, N. W. Pac. Herald, May 22, 1875; M. Cameron, Col., 
.lune 17, 1876; D. Cameron, Id., May 15, 1872; Sir G. Carticr, Id., May 22, 
1S73; Cary G. Hunter, Col., Sept. 18, 1866; Charles, TarheWa Victoria, MS., 
5; T.' Clarke, Col., June 26, 1879; Cleryon, Id., March 1, 1864; J. J. Coch- 
rane, Id., March 12, 1867; P. F. Corbiuiere, Id., May 17. 1871; ^V. E. Cor- 
niack Id., May 16, 1S68; Jolin Costello, Id., Jan. 25, 1871; T. Coupe. Col., 
Jan 4 1876; J. Cox, Col., Oct. 15, 1873; W. F. Crate, Co/., Oct. 3, 1871; J. 
C. Davie, Col., May 15, 1869; E. B. Dagg' •■. fd .''uly 19, 1864; O ^i Dennis, 



772 INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, AXD FINANCE, 

Col., Aug. 24, 1871; S. M. Driard, Coi., March 15, 1864; Geo. Dimbar, Td., 
Dec. 11, 1872; A. C. Elliott, Vol., Jan. 29, 1876; W. Emery, Col, May 10, 
1871; J. Evans, S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 28, 1879; J. Fleming, Col, May 24, 
1871; Mitchell Foy, /(/., Feb. 2, 1870; L. Franklin, Col, Aug. 10, 1873; J. 
Graham, Seattle InteUn/encer, Oct. 23, 1871; E. Grancini, Col, Nov. 12, 1879; 
Standard, Nov. 12, 1879; Grant, Bayley's V. I., MS., 2; C. J. Griffin, C'o('., Aug. 
19, 1874; J. B. Griffith, Id., May 17, '1871; A. H. Guild, Id., Nov. 12, 1873; 
T. Hall, Col, Dec. 19, 1874; O. Hare, Id., Dec. 28, 31, 1876; S. Harris, 
Standard, May 3, 1877; S. W. Hemnff, Dom. Pnc. Herald, Aug. 27, 1S79; 
E. Head, Col, Apr. 11, 1868; A. G. Hefflev, Col, June 11, 1872; A. Hibbard, 
Col, June 26, 1869; Sir F. Hincks, Col, Sept, 14, 1872; A. Hoffineistcr, Col 
Sept. 30, 1874; Standard, Sept. 30, 1874; J. Howe, Col, June 11, 1873; E. 
H. Jackson, Standard, June 28, 1877; Kennedy, Col, ]\Iarch 22, 1864; J, 
James, Sac. Record- Union, Jan. 23, 1884; A. Lane, Col, Sept. 12, 1865; R. 
Lewis, Col, Jan. 3, 1875; J. Livermore, Col, Jan. 30, 1869; L. McLure, Id., 
March 8, 1864; N. W. Brit. Columbian, June'26, 1867; T. G. Marshal, Stand- 
ard, Apr. 4, 1877; W. Miles, Col, Nov. 20, 1872; M. Moore, Id., Oct. 15, 
1873; Monatt, Id., Apr. 26, 1871; W, B. Naylor, Nanaivio Gazette, Oct. 13, 
1866; Col, Oct. 3, 1866; R. Newell, Evan's Hist. N. Coast, MS.; P. Ogden, 
Seattle Intellii/enccr, Oct. 27, 1870; John Please, Sac. Record- Union, "iiow 25, 
1852; C. J, Pritchard, CoL, July 20, 1870; Wm Robertson, Id., Dec. IS, 
1872; J. Rogers, Standard, Oct. 29, 1879; Col, Oct. 26, 1879; J. Rueff, Id., 
Sept. 1, 1875; H. Schultz, Standard, March 11, 1878; Sleigh, Col, May 22, 
1869; E. Stamp, Id,. Jan. 31, 1872; C'o^. , July 23, 1872; N. W. Pac. Herald, 
Jan. 24, 1872; E. A. Starr, Col, July 15, 1876; M. J. Stone, Id., Dec. 19, 
1874; J. Swanson, Id., Oct. 22, 1872; Col, Oct. 23, 1872: J. H. Turner, Port- 
land West Shore, Sept. 1879, p. 264; D. Thomas, Col, Sept. 11, 1866; J. B. 
Timmerman, Id, May 21, 1873; J.Titcomb, /fZ., July 10, 1809; J. W. Trahev, 
Col, Dec. 28, 1868; J. W. Waitt, Col, July 13, 1870; J. R. Watson, Seattle 
Intelliqencer, July 12, 1869; Olympia Republican, July 19, 1869; J. Wherty, 
Col, Dec. 11, 1872; H. Wilkinson, Col, Nov. 26, 1869; H. C. WilUston, Col, 
Aug. 15, 1868; H. Wootton, CoL, Dec. 29, 1875; A. Young, Col, Sept. 13, 
1872. 

Final list of references: Good's Brit. Col., MS.; Brit. Col. Sketches, MS.; 
Bayley's Vancouver Island, MS.; De Cosmos, Government, MS.; Cooper's 
Alaritiine Matters, MS.; Palmer's War/on Trails, MS.; Cridije's Charaiteris- 
tics of J as Douglas, MS.; Mackenzie's Mem. Can. Pac. R. R., MS.; Elliott's 
Brit. Col Potitics, MS.; Mem. Geol Surveys, MS.; Finlayson's V. I. and N. 
W. Coast, MS.; Tarbell's Victoria, MS.; Brown's Indians and Settlers, MS.; 
Evans, Fraser River Excitement, MS.; Hancock's Thirteen Tears, MS., passim; 
House Ex. Doc, 4-5th Cong., 2d Sess., xxi. no. 90, 28-72, 134-76; xxiii. 
no. 102, 507; 45th Conq., 3d Sess., i., pt 1, 339-47; Ji-Gth Cong., M Sess., 
xvi., no. 7, 30-78, 142-98, 264-300; 4Gth Cong., 3d Sess., i., pt 1, 504; 
Mess, and Doc, 1870-1, Navy and P. 0. Dept, 133-5; Sess. Papers, B. C, 

1876, 79-152, 419-563, 588, 601-23, 725; 1877, 83-159, 249-356, 401-48; 1878, 
7-68, 263-413, 455-93; 1879, 179-326, 371-87; 1880, 159-310; 1881,315-464; 

1882, 249-322, 363-408, 435-7, 457-500; 1883, 107-304, 321-31, 345, 351-72, 
379, 399, 471-90; 1884, 7-84, 91-156, 189, 229-83, 295-307, 33.5-45, 399-423, 
432, 441-63, 809; 1885, 129-36, 151-236, 451-60, passim; Revised Laus, Brit. 
Col (1871); CoiisoL Stat. Brit. Col., (1877) passim; Stat. Brit. Col, 1877, 91- 
4, 111-13, 133, 141, 638-9; 1878, 71-2, 89-90, 93-5, 129-32; 1870, 2.3, 37-48, 
69-75, 111-23, 150-6; 1880, 1-8, 49, 59; 1881, 43-6; 1882, 4-8, 13-55, 77; 

1883, 2-22, 35, 37-8, 47-69, 77-8, 81-2; 1884, 16, 32, 35, 181; 1885, 5, 75- 
6, 125-41, passun; Jour. Legisl Council, B. C, 1804, 32, 36; 1867, 29-30, 
66-7; 1868, 2, app. iv.-viii,; 1869, 15, 66-7, app. ii., iii., v.-vii; 1870, app. iv.- 
ix.; 1871", 54-60; Colonicd Estimates, in Id., 1871, 2-12; Jour. Legisl Ass., 
Brit. Col, 1873-4, 1-2, 56-7, app. i. 27^9, ii. 5-66, v. 1-7, vii. 5-8. 35; 1875, 
2-3, 47-8, app. 3-12, 14-73, 181-246, 301-481, 545-78, 6.39; 1876, 2-3, 63; 

1877, 1-2, 13, 67, app. xxvi.; 1878, 1-2, 68, 78-9; 1879, 1-2, 64; 1880, 1-2, 
21, 45, app. iii. 1881, 1-2, 59-60, 72; 1882, 1-2, 5, 7, 12-54; 1883, 3, 17, 65; 



FINAL AUTHORITIES. 773 

1SS4, 2, 81, 88; 1885, 1-4, 35, 52, passim; U. S. Bureau of Statidic^, no. 2, 
1879-80, p. 14;^, 162, 1G4, 175, 188-<J; IJand-Books, Brit. Vol. Board of Tradt, 
passim; Brit. Col. Ind. Land Question, 03, 97; Zamora, iv. 282-3; Chittenden's 
Travels in Brit. Col., 5-8, 20-9, 40-2, 48, 50, 07; Whjiwper's Alaska, 15^, 
passim; Dawson's N. W. Ter. and Brit. Col., 50-2, 55-77,85-113; Sddmore'a 
Alaska, ()-15; 11 ittelVs Commerce and Industries, passim; Banieln/a Life and 
Labor, 88-150; The Mines, Miners, etc., 507; Delniar's Hist. Precious Metals, 
109; The Mining Industry, 22; Seward's Sjieeckat Victoria, 1809, 17-20; Brit. 
Col. Affairs, pts 1, 2, 3, 1858-00; Brit. Col. Explorations, Brit. North 
Amer.; Brit. Col. Lands and Work Dei-t Bepts. Brit. Col. Ministrr of Mines 
liepts. Ihit. Col. Papers connected icith the Indian Land Question, i850-75; 
Brit. Col. Public Accounts, 1870-7, 1880-1; Canada Census, 1880-1; Canada 
Customs Tariff, 1877; Canada Debates in Par It, 1877, 1878; Canada Dept of 
the Interior, Ann. Bepts, 1874-80; Canada Bepts Comm. Fisheries, 1870-9; 
Can. Geol. Surveij Bepits. of Progress, 1870-9; Canada Inland liev. Bepts. 
Canada Marine ajid Fisheries, Ann. Bepts, 1874-80; Canada Minister vfAgric. 
Beijts, 1877-80; Canada Postmaster-General Beports, 1872-80; Canada Public 
Accounts, 1875-7; Canada Tables of T7-ade and Navigation, 1873-80; Taylor's 
Spec. Press, 479^; Brit. Colonist, May 7, Dec. 2, 1877; Jan. 3, Feb. 3, 28, 
Apr. 13, May 14, July 10, 1878, March 20, Apr. 11, 19, 22, 29, July 1, May 
13, July 23, Aug. 10, 23, Sept. 25, Oct. 13, 10, 20, 24, 20, Nov. 0, 1879; I'ic 
toria Weekly Standard, Oct. 22, Nov. 20, Dec. 10, 1879, Jan. 28, Feb. 4, 
:\larch 10, Apr. 28, May 5, 1880; Z)y Standard, Apr. 25, ISIay 2, July 25, 
Oct. 17, 31, Nov. 21, 1877; Apr. 17, 1878; Apr. 19, 20, 30, May 15, 1879; 
Dom. Pac. //eraW, March 19, 22, 1879; New Westminster Mainland Guardian, 
Feb. 8, May 10, 1879; Nanaimo Free Press, May 19, 1880; S. F. Alta, March 
8, 1852; July 7, 1853; Nov. 7, 1857; Apr. 28, May 27, June 20, 27, Aug. 25, 
Oct. 7, 15, 23, Nov. 13, 1858; May 21, June 13, July 3, 1800; Feb. 11, March 
10, Apr. 13, May 2, 1.3, July G, Oct. 18, Nov. 29, Dec. 21, ISGl; Jan. 14, 
March 11, 22, 23, Apr. 14, 15, May 12, 13, 21, June 11, July 11, 12, Aug. 25, 
Sept. 5, Oct. 13. Nov. 10, 1802; Jan. 30, March 22, Apr. 24, May 11, Sept. 
8, Oct. 30, 1S63 Jan. 10, 14, 28, 29, Feb. 20, March 7, 22, 31, Apr. 1, 0, 19, 
May 1, 4, 10, 19, 21, 27, June 9, 10, 21, 30, July 12, 20, 27, Aug. 10, 12, 14, 
27, Sept. 12, 13, 19, 27, Oct. 0, 14, 10, 24, Nov. 13, 23, Dec. 28, 1804; Feb. 
24, Apr. 1, 30, May 19, June 2, Aug. 5, 1805; Feb. 22, Apr. 25, May 10, ISGG; 
Jan. 4, 9, 13, 19, Feb. 8, 10, March 4, 7, 12, 25, Apr. 14, May 24, 28, Aug. 
7, 25, Sept. 12, Oct. 1, 24, 1807; Jan. 14, Oct. 20, 1808; Apr. 1.3, 23, July 4, 
1809; Feb. 21, 1870; May 13, Sept. 12, Dec. 27, 1871; Jan. 20, Feb. 14, March 
31, Apr. 28, June 10, 20, July 15, Aug. IS, 28, 1872; March 3, 18, May 5, 
Oct. 29, 1873; Oct. 22, 1874; Sept. 19, Oct. 25, 1875; May IS, Aug. 25, Sept. 
10, 1870; Feb. 3, May 12, 1877; Aug. .3, 1878; May 19, 1880; May 10, 1881; 
Apr. 10, 1882; Apr. 5, May 14, July 3, 1884; Bulletin, June 1-5, 7, 11, 12, 
20, July 0, 8, 15, 20, 20, Nov. 3, Dec. 8, 9, 28, 1858; Jan. 3, 11, 12, Feb. 15, 
10, Apr. 15, 18, 30, May 14, 18, 31, June 3, 10, 11, 25, 30, July 15, IS, 29, 30, 
Aug. 1, Sept. 1, 14, 19, Oct. 28, Dec. 0, 1859; Feb. 23, May 4. July 7, ISCO; 
March 27, June 11, 18, Oct. 15, 17, 2S, Nov. 4, 0, 14, 23, 1801; May 10, July 
3, 24, Oct. 23, Nov. 10, Dec. 12, 1802; Jan. 12, Feb. 10, March 4, Apr. 21, 
Aug. 1, 19, Dec. 10, 1803; June 9, Sept. 20, Oct. 24, Nov. 10, 1804; Jim. 10, 
Feb. 3, Aug. 31, 1805; July 3, 1800; Jan. 20, Sept. 4, Nov. 3, 1808; Feb. 19, 
Oct. 23, Nov. 23, 1809; Jan. 0, Feb. 1, June 30, 1870; Apr. 1, June 20, Dec. 
17, 1872; March 3, 4, 19, Sept. 4, 1873; July22, 1874; May25, 1875; Feb. 7, 
May 3, Aug. 30, 1870; July 23, Aug. 1, 1877; Aug. 0, Oct. 14, Nov. 4, 1878; 
March 11, Apr. 25, 28, June 11, Aug. 27, 1879; Apr. 29, May 7, 12, June 9, 
24 July 1, 12, 20, 21, 20, Aug. 2, 19. 20, 2.3, 25, 29, Sept. 22, 29, .30, Oct. 1, 
12, 14, 22, 24, Nov. 8, 9, 24, 1881; Aug. 27. 1883; Apr. 4, MayO, 1884; Feb. 
27, March 12, Oct. 24, 1885; Call, .Jan. 8, March 31, Apr. 12, Majr27, June 
19, Oct. 8, Nov. 2, 1804; Jan. 22, June 4, 8, 30, Sept. 30, 1^05; Jan. 0, 19, 
Feb. 10, March 22, May 24, Aug. 7, Sept. 12, Oct. 24, 1807; l-eb 27, March 
10, Apr. 30, Aug. 5, Sept. 8, 23, Oct. 25, 1808; Apr. 21. IS'O; J»nie 8. Oct. 
2' 1S7'^- Dec 20, 1874; June 22, 1875; May 12, 1870; Apr. 0, July 23, 18//; 



774 INDUSTRIES, COMMEECE, AND FINANCE. 

March 8, June 16, 1878; June 13, 1879; June 21, 1882; Jan. 12, Feb. 2, Apr. 
14, 1884; Feb. 25, March 11, Dec. 4, 1885; Chronicle, Dec. 15, 187G; July 22, 
Sept. 13, 1878; Apr. 14, 1880; Apr. 1, 1884; Jan. 5, March I, 13, May 23, 
1885; Comm. Herald, Aug. 30, 1867; Aug. 29, 1868; July 5, 1877; Jour, of 
Commerce, May 23, 1877; Merc. Gazette, Nov. 12, 1864; Nov. 9, 18C5; Post, 
Oct. 23, 1873; June 22, 25, 1875; Apr. 27, May 3, Aug. 24, 28, 30, 31, Sept. 
13, 29, Oct. 14, 19, 30, Dec. 4, 7, 1876; Apr. 7, June 4, Aug. 4, 1877; July 
16, 1878; July 24, 1885; Padjic Churchvian, Nov. 19, 18G8; Times, March 
30, Nov. 2, 22, 1867; Jan. 14, Apr. 1, July 20, Oct. 26, 27, 1868; Feb. 16, 
March 15, 1869; Abend Post, Jafl. 8, 20, 1876; Stockton Independent, July 30, 
1880; Aug. 19, 20, 1881; SteilaeoomExpress, July 26, 1877; Intelligencer, Jan. 
13, May 22, June 5, 17, July 23, Sept. 3, 1879; Alturas (Modoc co., Ccd.) In- 
dependent, Sept. 29, 1877; Ashland Tidings (Or.), Aug. 3, 1877; Olympia 
Transcript, July 5, 1879; Port Townsend Argus, May 31, 1883; Portland 
Catholic Sentinel, Sept. 11, 1879; Western Oregonian, June 7, 14, 1879; Culi- 
/ornian, Aug. 1881, p. 177; Virginia (Nev.) Chronicle, Apr. 7, 1877; Oregon 
State (Eugene City) Journal, Apr. 10, 1880; Gold Hill Neics, June 12, 1866 
ElFronterizo (Tucson), Jan. 27, 1882; Portland Telegram, Oct. 29, 31, 1879 
Portland Standard, Aug. 10, 1877; Portland West Shore, Jan., July, 1877 
Feb., March, June, 1880; Sac. Record-Union, Feb. 29, 1856; Aug. 22, 1860 
Oct. 13, 31, 1879; March 14, May 16, June 28, Aug. 20, 23, 1881; July 25 
1882; Jan. 30, Feb. 6, 1883; Jan. 1, 12, 19, Feb. 2, March 18, Apr. 26. 1884 
Jan. 14, March 12, May 5, 23, 1885. 



IKDEX. 



"Activa," ship, 15, 2S. 

"Active," U. S. steamer, 2G0, 405, 610, 

622. 
Adaif, John, miner, 550. 
Adams, mining on Fraser River, 349- 

50. 
Adams Creek, gold discovered, 460. 
Adams River, mining on, 460. 
Adams Luke, gold discovered, 461. 
Adderley, Mr, on H. B. Co.'s charter, 

378. 
"Adelaide," bark, 361. 
Admiralty Inlet, original name, 11. 
Agriculture at forts, 61-2,80,93, 119, 
127-9, 131, 182 205, 260; among 
fur traders, 80, 81, 312; growing 
importance, 80; areas and condition, 
1860-6, 740-4. 
Ague, prevalence of, 67. 
Ahern, miner, murdered by Inds, 530. 
Ahousets Inds attack whites, 429. 
Alden, Capt., in comd of "Active," 

260, 622. 
Alder, Lt, in comd of the "Three 

Brothers," 28. 
Alfred Bar, mining at, 441. 
Allan, G. T., justice of peace, 264. 
Allan, Sir Hugh, railway contract, 

652-4. 
Allard, 0., in charge at Ft Yale, 385. 
Allen, miner, murdered by Inds, 530. 
"America," H. M. S., 120-4. 
American Bar, mining at, 441. 
Anderson, A. C, on H. B. Co.'s policj' 
to Inds, 50; comd at FtCohille, 60; 
at Ft Nisqually, 62-3; hiog. and 
bibliog., 157-9; explor. expedts to, 
157-70, 175-6; map of route, 162; 
on gold discovery, 349; report on 
gold yield, 470; on mining licenses, 
571; bibliog., 761. 
Andrews, B. 8., Amer. settler on S. 

Juan, 617. 
Anderson, David, before comm. in 
Eng. on H. B. Co., 381. 



Anderson Gulch, mining at, 482. 

Anderson River, expedt. on, 167. 

Antler Creek, mining at, 457, 479, 
491 3, 512, 515; town at, 492-3; 
society, 492. 

Anvil Island named, 20. 

Applegate, J. K., attacked by Inds, 
1859, 614-15. 

"Aranzazu, ' Spanish man-of-war, 29. 

Arctic Creek, prospectors on, 547; 
mining, 551. 

"Argonaut," ship, seized by Span- 
iards, 1789, 8. 

Artesian Co. , lease and plans, 499-500. 

Assembly, firston V. I., 320-7; called, 
320; qualiticaticm of members, 320- 
1; members, 321, 326-7; business, 
322-7; gov.'s address to, 322-3. 

Astoria as a trading post, 78-81. 

Atnahs Inds, character, 136; conspir- 
acy of, 143. 

Auriferous region, extent, 539. 

Authorities quoted, xxi-xxix, 72-7, 
309, 579-81, 694-5, 766 9. 

"Aventui'e," ship, built by Vancou- 
ver, 15. 



Babine River prospected, 556. 

Back, Sir G., before comm. in Eng. 

on H. B. Co., 381. 
Baillie, T., visited by McElroy, 260. 
Baillie, Hamilton's iiay named, 191. 
lijiker, Lt, in N'ancouver's expedt., 16. 
Bakerville, prosperity of, 716. 
Balch, Capt., gold-hunting expedt., 

344. 
Bald Mountains, mining about, 505; 

geology, 513. 
Ball, H. M., justice of peace at Lyt- 
ton, 416; on gold discoverj', 4SG; 
gold commissioner, 206; of first 
legis. council, 583. 
Bidlou, W., starts express, 351-2. 
I Janking facilities, lf>8.'), 753. 
Biirclay, Capt., visit of, 17^7, 5. 



776 



INDEX. 



Barclay Sound named, 5; Spanish 
name for, 11. 

Bate, M., manager V. Coal Co., 569; 
mayor Nanaimo, 574. 

Bauerman on Cariboo geology, 515-; 
on B. C. coal-fields, 570. 

Barker Claim, mining at, 488, 497. 

Barkerville, importance, 495, 50.3, 
509; named, 497; burned, 1868, 497; 
wages, provisions, 516; H. B, Co. 
at, 516; reading-room, 519. 

Barnes, Ellis, sells H. B. Co. 's prop- 
erty on S. Juan Isl. , 608. 

Barr, E.., conducting colonial acade- 
my, 260; clerk of assembly, 340. 

Barri6re River, mining on, 459-60. 

Beale Co., work, 1866-7, 518. 

Bear River, mining at, 479; coal dis- 
covered, 579. 

Beaufort mine coal seam, 568. 

"Beaver," steamer, 59, 71-2 84, 92, 
93, 95, 101, 106, 188, 289, 405, 616. 

Beaver Harbor, coal discovered, 186- 
9i.; named, 188. 

Bedrock Flume Co., yield, 1868-9, 
540. 

Begg Creek, mining on, 505. 

Begbie, M. B., chief justice, 337, 361, 
405, 408, 412, 417, 420, 422; first 
circuit, 422; character, 423-6, 430- 
3; disliked by miners, 430; on Era- 
ser River, 445; on mining, 463, 465- 
6, 514. 

Bell, G. W., hanged, V. I., 435. 

Bell, Jas, explores Lightning Creek, 
506. 

Bellacoolas Inds at Victoria, 428. 

Bellingham Bay named, 20; Spanish 
name, 21; coal discovered, 200; fort 
on, erected, 613. 

Be vis, W. H., revenue officer, 405. 

Big Bar, locality, 455; nuning at, 457. 

Big Bend gold excitement, 470, 522, 
524, 530, 539; mining, 531, 535; 
failure, 534. 

Birch, A. N., of first legis. council, 
583. 

Birch Bay, named, 20; Spanish name, 
21. 

Blanshard, R., visit to coal mines, 
195; influence on colonization, 231; 
apptd gov. V. I., 265; arrival, 266; 
to serve without pay, 267; relations 
with H. B. Co., 268-72, 276-80; 
character, 275; resigns, 280-1; be- 
fore comm. in Eng. on H. B. Co., 
381. 

Blakely Island, 606. 

Blanchet, plants cross on Whitbey 
Isl., 1840, 100. 



Blenkinson, G., at Ft Rupert, 192-4; 
has sailors killed, 27.3. 

Blue Nose Bar, gold discovered, 441, 
444. 

Blunt Island, Ind. attack on, 1859. 
614-15. 

Bayley, C. A., coroner, Nanaimo, 
426. 

Baynes, Admiral, arrives at Esqui- 
malt, 404-5; in comd of English 
fleet, 624; actions in S. Juan affair. 
624-5. 

Bazalgette, Capt. G. , in comd of Eng. 
troops at S. Juan, 633, 

Bodegay Cuadra, coimn. for Spain in 
Nootka affair, 1792, 15. 

Bolduc, J. B. Z., at Camosun, 97-8; 
celebrates mass, 99; at Whitbey Isl. , 
99-100. 

Bond, G. P., U. S. commissioner in 
S. Juan trouble, 610. 

Boston Bar, mining at, 447-8. 

"Boxer," H. M. S., 572. 

Bradley, H., discovers coal, 568. 

Bradley Creek, coal-mining, 268. 

Brew, Chartres, establishes constabu- 
lary, 404; Hill Bar trouile, 411; of 
first legis. council, 585. 

Bridge River, mining at, 453-4. 

British America, jurisdiction of Ca- 
nadian courts in, 217. 

British Bar, mining at, 455-7. 

British Colonist, newspaper, 739. 

British Columbia, sunnnary of earliest 
voyages, 1-31; configuration, 33-40; 
physical divisions, 34-5; climate, 
40-3; fauna, 43-4; natives, 44-51; 
forts, 52-72; explorations, 157-70, 
175-6; gold discovered, 341-75; 
ti'avel to mines, 354-70, 382; eflects 
of discovery, 374-5; colony and 
govt established, 383; H. B. Co. 
stations, 385; govt of 1858-63, 388- 
418; created crown colony, 406; law 
established, 406; acct of gold-fields, 
420-2; mounted police, 434; popu- 
lar tribunals, 436; gold yield, 470-1 ; 
mining population, 471, 482; coal 
discoveries, 565-80; legis. council 
organized, 583; a province of the 
dominion, 598-601; S. Juan Island 
difficulty, 605-93; Canadian Pac. 
Railway, 640-93; politics and govt, 
1870-86, 696-706; settlements, 1861- 
86, 707-717; missions, 717-27; edu- 
cation, 734-8; newspapers, 739; 
industries, 760-6; commerce, 746- 
52; finance, 753-6. 

British Columbian, newspaper, 739. 

Brooks, Port, coal discovered, 201. 



INDEX. 



"Brother Jonathan," the steamer, 

wrecked, 467. 
Bioughton Archipelago nainecl, 2(j. 
Bruughton, Lt, in conul of tlie "Ciiat- 

hani," 15; expedt. of 17i>"2, 18. 
Broughtou ytraits, Spanish name for, 

26. 
Browu, D., shooting of, 452. 
Brown, L., on Fraser excitement, 

358. 
Brown, P., killed by Indians, 331. 
Brown, Dr !»., on gold discovery, 

463; on gold-field forro.ition, 466, 

o2i; on V. I. coal, 507; on Queen 

Charlotte Isl., 57-1-5. 
Brown,* Rev. R. C L., at William 

Creek, 519; prize essay Ijy, 760-1. 
Brown, Thos, gold discoverer, 496. 
Browne, Ross, on Columbia gold-field, 

521. 
Buchanan, Pres., actions in S. Juan 

affair, 626. 
Buckley's party prospecting, 549. 
Bukley, T. A., works Harewood Coal 

Mine, 573. 
Burns Creek, mining on, 482; yield, 

1875-7, 515. 
Burpee, Mr, originates Canadian Pac. 

Railway, 644. 
Burrard Inlet, Spanish name for, 24; 

coal discovered, 576, 579. 
Buiton, Lieut, destroys Indian vil- 
lage, 274. 
Butler, Capt., at Mansou Creek, 1871, 

552. 
Butler, Wm, Amer. settler on S. Juan, 

617. 
Byrnes, on gold-hunting expedt. re- 
port, 547-9. 



Caamafio, conid of the "Aranzazu," 
29. 

Cache Creek town, growth of, 458. 

"Cadboro,"schr, .59, 72, 101, 106. 

CaUlwell, Wm, before comm. m Eng. 
on H. B. Co., 381. 

California, effect of B. C. gold dis- 
covery, 357-62, 372-.3, 481, 478; 
exodus of population, 358-9, 362; 
reseml)lance to Fraser River gold- 
fields, 463; coal formation, 5(!6. 

California miners at Fort Victoria, 
180-1. 

California Creek, mining on, 482, 500. 

Call Canal named, 26. 

Cahert Island named, 26. 

Cameron Bar, mining at, 441, 443, 
451, 464, 465, 497, 517. 



Camoron, D., cliief justice, 327, .3;J5- 
7, 405; resigns, 422. 

Camosuu, examined by Douglas, 86-8; 
fort built. 94-101. 

Campbell, Arcii., U. S. conunissioner 
in S. Juan trouble, 610. 

Canadian Bar, mining at, 441, 498. 

Canadian Pacific liailway, cause of 
founding, 374; reasons f(ji- and 
against project, 640-4; bill carried 
in the commons, (j44; resolutions 
passed by Canadian parliament, 
645 6; preliminary surveys, 649-52; 
Hugh Allan contract, 652-4; the 
Canarvou terms, 661-2; petition to 
her Majesty, 663 4; Earl of Duffer- 
in's speech, 666-70; contract with 
syndicate, 678; engineering diHicul- 
ties, 681-4; I'ort Moody, reasons 
for selection as terminus, 684 6; 
completion of the line, 687; costly 
undertaking, 687-91. 

Canal de Sasamat. See Bun-ard Inlet. 

Canoe country nuning, 456, 473. 

Canon Creek, mining at,509-10. 

Capcha Ind. attack on the " King- 
fisher," 429. 

Cape Disappointment, Capt. Meares 
at, 1788, 6; trading post at, 182. 

Cape Lookout, Captain Meares at, 
1788-6. 

Cape Orford named, 15. 

"Captain Cook," ship, 178. 

Carry, E., gold discoverer, 545. 

Cariboo, mining in, 470, 472-92, 510- 
19; map of region, 474; missionaries 
at, 519; intiuence of excitement, 
546. 

Carnarvon Club organized, 698-9; de- 
mands of, 699. 

Carnarvon terms, acceptance of the, 
661-2. 

Carnes Creek mining, 532, 537. 

Carnes, Hank, gold discoverer, 1865, 
537-8. 

" Caroline," ship, 614. 

Carpenter Bar, mining at, .^59. 

Carriers, Inds, ciuiracter, 50. 

Cartier, Sir (J. E., actions in Pacific 
Railway, 651-2. 

Cary, G. H., solicitor-general B. C, 
405. 

Casey, Col, reenforces Pickett at S. 

Juan, 622; imprudence of, 622-3. 
Casey Bar, goKl discovered, 441. 
Cass, Sec, actions in S. Juau affair, 

627. 
Cassiar mining district, location, 543; 
gold excitement, 1801, 559; mining, 
559-64. 



INDEX. 



Cattle brought into N, W., 62; at 

forts, 106-7; stealing, 331, 
Cavanaugh, A., miuei', murdered by 

Inds, 230. 
Cayoosh, Ind. village, 452. 
Cayuses, Inds, character, 50. 
Cedar Creek pi'ospected, 487-8. 
Ceutras, Capt. John, treats with In- 
dians, 396. 
Chancellor sent from Eng. to report 

on mines, 231. 
Chapman party prospecting, 1869, 

547. 
Charbonnedem, A., in Anderson's 

explor. expdt., 159. 
Charles, Wm, manager Hudson's Bay 

Co., Pacific coast, 382. 
" Chatham," H. M. S., 15, 18, 21, 28. 
Cheadle, report on gold formation, 

486; at Cariboo mines, 498. 
Chemauis district, coal discovered, 

579. 
Cherry Creek, mining on, 538. 
Chilcats, Inds, attack whites, 48. 
Chilkotins, Inds, attack on pack-train, 

428. 
Chilliwack Eiver, coal discoverd on, 

579. 
Chimsyans, Inds, at Victoria, 428; 

missionaries among, 719. 
Chinese, Ind. regard for, 49; mining 

in gold-fields, 329, 330, 343,348, 398, 

444, 454-5, 458-9, 471, 487-8, 601, 

509, 511, 526, 540, 541, 551, 553, 

563; at Victoria, 710-11. 
Chinese question in B. C, 711-12. 
Chinooks, language of, 51. 
Coisholm Creek, mining at, 482, 507. 
Chittendon, N. H., bibliog., 759. 
Christian, J., opens mine, 460. 
Christy opposes H. B. Co., 213. 
Clallams, Inds, country of, 93-4; at- 
tend mass, 99. 
Clayoquet Harbor, Vancouver winters 

at, 15. 
Clayton, trade controversy, 207. 
Clearwater River, mining on, 505. 
Clinton, prosperity of, 716. 
"Clio," H. M. S., 417; attacks Ind. 

village, 429. 
Cloak Bay named, 5, 
Coal discoveries, 186-96, 196-200, 

165-80; formations, 565-8; license 

to discover, 571-2; mine regulations, 

577-8; minister's report, 577; yield, 

1884, 750. 
Colnett, Capt., ship of, seized by 

Spaniards, 8. 
"Columbia," H. B. Co. ship, 8, 15, 

120, 238. 



" Columbia," P. M. Co. steamer, 359. 

Columbia River, failure to enter, 1792, 
29; settlers' encroachments on, 81; 
mines, 520-42; geology, 528. 

Columbia and Kootenai Railway Co. 
incorporated, 691. 

Colville Coty, gold discovered, 348; 
mining, 520-1. 

Commercial Inlet, coal discovered, 
198, 200. 

"Commodore," steamer, 369, 361. 

"Cormorant," ship, 134, 190, 266. 

Comox coal seam, area, 576. 

Comox Harbor, coal mining at, 568, 
578. 

"Concepcion," ship, 29. 

Confederation first mooted 1822, 595; 
in effect 1S41, 595; B. C. a province 
of the dominion, 598-602. 

Conklin Gulch, mining at, 482, 500, 
508, 515. 

Connolly, Nellie, marries Douglas, 
289. 

" Constance," frigate, 124, ISO. 

Convict labor at Victoria, 435. 

Cook, Capt. James, at Nootka 1778, 
3; map, 3; on Pacific coast, 4. 

Cooper, J as, trader on Fraser River, 
255-6; settles at Metchosin, 256-7; 
at Esquimalt, 260; signs settlers' 
petition, 314; before comm. in Eng. 
on H. B. Co., 381; on gold dis- 
covery, 350, 354; of council, 281, 
316, 320. 

Copals, Indian cliief, 393. 

Corbett, G. 0., before comm. in Eng. 
onH. B. Co., 381. 

C6rdoba Harbor, 10. See Victoria. 

Cornwall, C. F., chief magistrate 
1881-6, 704. 

"Cortes," steamer, 361. 

Cottonwood Creek, mining at, 515. 

Coucey, Capt. Michaelde, at Esqui- 
malt, 404. 

Council, provisional, of V. I., 316. 

Courtney, Capt., at V. I., 124. 

Courts, Canadian, jurisdiction iu B. 
A., 217. 

Cowichins, Inds, attend mass, 95, 99; 
attack Ft Camosuu, 107-10; Doug- 
las' policy toward, 331; missionaries 
among, 719. 

Cowitchen Bay, coal discovered, 567, 
578. 

"Cowlitz," H. B. Co. ship, 120. 

Crease, H. P. P., of first legis. coun- 
cil, 583; judge, 706. 

Crest, W., gold discoverer, 545. 

Crickener, B., chaplain, arrives V. I., 
407. 



INDEX. 



779 



Cridge, view of Douglas, 209. 
Croftou, J. F., before comiu. in Eng. 

on H. B. Co., 381. 
Cuailra, exploration of, 1774-9, 'A. 
Cuiniiughani Creek, mining at, 477, 

479, 489-91, 497, 500. 
Cunningham, W., exploration cf, 506. 
Cunishewas Harbor, coal seam at, 574. 
"Curlew," sloop, 361. 
Cutler, L. A., hog affair of~S. Juan 

Isl. 1859, 610-17. 
Cj'press Island named, 20. 



"Dtedalus," H. M. S., 28, 29, 274. 

Daily Evening Post, newspaper, 739. 

Daily and Weekly Colonist, news- 
paper, 739. 

Daily and Weekly Stautlard, news- 
paper, 739. 

Dallas, A. G., claims S. Juan for 
British soil, 616. 

"Dameras Cove," ship, 344. 

"Daphne," H. M. 8., 274, 281. 

Datsou, murder of, 435. 

Davis, Wm, in Anderson's explor. 
expdt., 159. 

Davis Gulch, mining at, 482. 

Dawson, G. M., on Cariboo mines, 
472, 513; on B. C. coal, 567, 579; 
railway survey expedt., 650. 

Day Bar, mining at, 455-7. 

Deadwood Bar, gold discovered at, 
441. 

Deans, G., settles at V. I., 258, 

Deans, Jas, biog., 113-15; at V. I., 
258-9. 

Dease Lake, mining at, 560-2. 

Decatur Island, 606. 

Deception Bay, Captain ^leares at, 
177S, 6. 

Deception Passage named, 18. 

De Courcy Islands, coal discovered, 
567, 579. 

De Courcj', ^laj., magistrate at S. 
Juan, 618. 

Deep Sea Bluff named, 26. 

De Groot, H., on gold discovery, 348, 
350, 463. 

Denman, Admiral, destroys Ind. vil- 
lage, 429. 

Derby, to^vn, 406-7. 

Desolation Sound named, 25. 

Destruction Island, Capt. Meares at, 
1788, 6. 

"Devastation," H. M. S., 429. 

Dewdney, E., surveys William Creek, 
502; on Kootenai" trail, 530. 



Deitz, W., miner, 483-4, 495; claim, 
497. 

T)iller, miner, 486. 

"Discovery," H. M. S., 15, 16, 20. 

Discovery claim, mining at, 488, 494, 
507, 508, 527, 534, 537, 533, 561. 

Dixon, Geo., visit of, 1787, 5. 

Dixon Sti-ait named, 5. 

I )og Creek, mining at, 4.'K). 

Donnellan, B. C, chief of police, 402. 

Douglas coal mine, work at, 569; 
compared with Newca.stle, 572. 

Douglas, Capt., visit of, 1788, 6. 

Douglas, Daviil, deatli of, 135. 

Douglas, James, builds forts, 48, 95- 
101, 290; quarrel with McNeill, 69- 
71; explores Tako river, 67-72; 
visits Cal., 72, 291; surveys Royal 
Bay, 87; report on C'amosun, 88-9; 
on Esquimau, 89-90; character, 
115, 118, 120, 292-5, 387; chief 
factor, 119, 295; at Ft Vancouver, 
131; at Ft Victoria, i:i3; report ou 
coal discovery, 189-90; visits coal 
mines, 199-200; opposes Blanshard, 
266, 278; on council, 281; on board 
of management, 2S3; gov. of V. I., 
283, 310 28; biog., 2N5-96; early 
relations to Mclx)nglilin, 286; edu- 
cation, 28.5-90; marriage, 288-9; 
rescues Lassertes, 291-2; personal 
appearance, 292-3, 2119-300; retires 
from H. B. Co., 296; death, 296; 
compared to AlcLougldin, 29(), 300- 
9; calls first assembly, .320; policy 
to Inds, 299, 331-5; policy to set- 
tlers, 305-6; address to Assembly, 
322-3; rept on gold discovery, 348- 
51, 353-4, 370, 475, 621; mining 
proclamations, 352-3, 402-3; policy 
to gold miners, 361, 3G4-(i, 370-1, 
381-2, 386-94, 400, 408; (Jov. of B. 
C, 384, 387, 401-3, 405; examines 
mines, 390-4; witiidraws from H. 
B. Co., 403; address presented to, 
587; knigiited, 587; cliaiacter as 
gov. 588-9; proclamation against 
invasion of S. Juan, 620; comtnun. 
on S. Juan atlair, 621. 

Douglas, Wm, ship of, seized by 
Spaniards, 8. 

Downie, Maj., reiwrt ou mines, 514, 
.576, 578. 

Dragon Rocks named, 15. 

Draper, ^V. H., before comm. in Eng. 
on H. B. G.., 381. 

"Driver," sliip, 26(i. 

Dull'erin, Earl, visit and speech, 654, 
(;(i6-72. 
I Dulliu, Robt, explor. trip of 1788, 6^ 



780 



INDEX. 



Dunbar claim, yield, 508. 

Duncan, Wm, missionary act. as 

magistrate, 434, 718. 
Dunn, J., bibliog., 1S8-9. 
Dunsmuir, Kobt, coal discovery, 572. 
Dunsmuir coal mine, 569-70, 572. 
Duntze, Capt. J. A., visit of, 124-5, 



Eagle Bar, gold discovered at, 441. 
Eagle Pass, last rail of C. P. laid at, 

687. 
Ebey, I. N"., actions in S. Juan 

trouble, 1854, 607-8; murder of. 

613. 
Edgar, James D., actions in Canadian 

Pac. Railway affair, 656-8, 
Education, 1865-84, 734-8. 
Edwards, J. E., discovers gold, 480. 
Elgin, Lord, complaints against H. B. 

Co., 212; investigates, 232. 
Elisa, expdt. of 1791, 11-14; map, 12. 
Elisa Bay. See Pedder Bay. 
EUenborough peninsula named, 191. 
EUice, E., M. P., on colonization, 208; 

on V. I. grant, 230; on character 

H. B. Co., 378; before comm. in 

Eng. on H. B. Co., 381. 
Elmore Gulch, mining at, 554. 
Emery, E. E., at Nanaimo, 1871, 572. 
Emory Bar, mining at, 443, 464, 465. 
Elwyn, Thomas, justice of the peace 

at Lilloet, 416. 
"England," sliip, 195, 273. 
England offers reward for discovery 

of N. W. passage, 3-4; sends comm. 

to Wash, to negotiate treaty 1871, 

637. 
Englefield harbor, gold discovery at, 

347. 
Ent, Noel, Amer. settler on S. Juan, 

617. 
"Enterprise," steamer, 364, 587- 
Ericsson Mining Co., yield, 498, 500; 

members, 516. 
Ermatinger at Ft Kamloop, 135. 
Esquimalt Harbor, oi-iginal name, 10; 

description, 87; Douglas examines, 

89-90; society at, 714. 
Esquimalt and Nanaimo railway, 

contract for construction, 692. 
Etholin, gov. of Sitka, 68, 207. 
Evans, killed by Indians, 368. 
Evans, Ellwood, on gold discovery, 

B. C, 355. 
"Experiment," ship, 26. 
Exports, list and value, 1884, 751-2. 
Express Bar, gold discovered, 441. 



Fanshawe, Capt., attacks Indians, 
274-5. 

Farris, Michael, Amer. settler on S. 
Juan, 617. 

" Fauntleroy, " brig, 610. 

"Felice," ship, 5, 8. 

"Fenis," ship, 29. 

Fery Creek, mining on, 510. 

Fery, Jules, on Cai-iboo mines, 514. 

Ferguson Bar, locality, 455-6; min- 
ing at, 457. 

Fidalgo, S., Capt. of the "Princesa, " 
20. 

Fife Passage named, 26. 

Fifty-four Forty Bar, gold discovered, 
441. 

Finance, revenue, and expenditure, 
1863, 584; 1864, 590-1; 1870, 603. 

Finlay, Jas, explores Finlay River, 
555. 

Finlay River, mining on, 530, 546-55. 

Finlayson, R., with Douglas, 71, 100; 
comd at Ft Camosun, 101-15, 118- 
32; bibliog., 103-4; character, 104- 
6, 157; defends Ft Camosun, 108- 
10; at Ft Victoria, 181; discovers 
coal, 188; cliief accountant, 282-3; 
signs settlers' petition, 314; mem. 
of council, 320; on gold discovei'y, 
348-9, 359-60; treasurer H. B. Co., 
359-60; chief factor, 382; at mines, 
516, 527. 

"Fisgard," ship, 124r-5. 

Fisheries, value and extent, 746-8. 

Fisherville, rise, 1864, 523-4; famine, 
1865, 524; pulled down 1866, 525. 

Fitzgerald, J. E., on grant of V. I., 
221, 225-6, 228. 

Fitzhugh Sound named, 26. 

Fitzwilliam, C. W. W., before comm. 
in Eng. on H. B. Co., 381. 

Fitzwilliam, Earl, on settlement V. I. , 
262. 

Flattery Cape named, 4. 

Fleming, Sandford, of the Pac. Rail- 
w^ay construction Co., 653. 

Forbes, Dr, on gold discovery, 463; 
on mines, 513, 571. 

Forbes, Charles, prize essay by, 760. 

Fort Albert. See Ft Camosun. 

Fort Alexander, location, 57. 

Fort Babiue, location, 57-8. 

Fort Bellingham established, 617. 

Fort Camosun founded, 92-101; pur- 
pose of, 93; cattle at, 106-7; at- 
tacked by Inds, 107-10; description, 
111-16; name changed, 118. 

Fort Colville, removal of, 184. 



INDEX. 



781 



Fort Connolly built, 290. 

Fort Detiaiice erected 1792, 15. 

Fort Eilmoutoii, miiiiug at, 525. 

Fort Fraser, location, 57. 

Fort George, location, 57. 

Fort Hope established, 176; impor- 
tance, 39.3. 

Fort Kamloops, location, 134, 136; 
coninianders of, 134-5; Tod at, 134- 
56; Inds trading at, 136; iShushway 
conspiracy, 134-56. 

Fort Laugtey, situation, 59; de- 
stroyed, 67; as a trading post, 82. 

Fort McLeod, location, 57. 

Fort McLouglilin, location, 59; aban- 
doned, 93, 100. 

Fort >i'is(|ually, agric. at, 62. 

Fort Rupert established, 193-4; so- 
ciety at, 194-5; coal mining, 193-6. 

Fort 8t James, location, 57-8. 

Fort Simpson, situation, 59. 

Fort Tako established, 48; location, 
59; built, 72; abandoned, 93, 100. 

Fort Thompson. See Ft Kamloops. 

Fort Vaucouver, agric. at, 02-3; li- 
brary at, 63. 

Fort Victoria, as a post, 119-20, 1.30; 
hospitality at, 121-5; agric. at, 127- 
9, 131; as a whaling station, 128; 
rising importance, 12C, 130; town 
laid out, 258. See Fort Camosun. 

Fort Yale established, 171-6. 

Forts of B. C, 53-72, 130. 

Forts, catalogue of, 721-33. 

Forts, northern, map of, 193. 

" Forty-Nine," steamer, 533—4. 

Forty-nine Creek, mining at, in 1867, 
530. 

Foster Bar, mining at, 451. 

Fouipiett, Father, missionary, 718. 

Foulweather BlutF named, 16. 

Foulweather Cape named, 4. 

Foimtain, the, uuning at, 440, 454- 

^ 5, 464, 482. 

Foy, M., miner, 540. 

Foy, P., miner, 557. 

Fraser, A., prospects Xation River, 
1870, 555. 

Fraser, D., on Cariboo mines, 482, 
on gold discovery, 486, 492. 

Fraser, Paul, at Umpqua, 57-126. 

Fraser River, discovery of, 24; Sir G. 
Simpson descends, 159; character 
of, 161; gold discovered, 353-4; 
excitement begins, 355-6; mining 
on, 438, 461, 468-71; character of 
mines, 429-40; ascendedl)ystoamers, 
444; overland routes to, 44.5-7, 419- 
50; kinds of gold in, 462, 465-6; 
rush to, 466-8, 522; yield, 468-71; 



coal discovered, 577, 579; bridge 
across, 680. 

Fraser River Railway Co. incorpo- 
rated, 691. 

Fraser, Simon, bibliog., 702. 

Frederick Arm, Spanish name for, 26. 

Free Press, newspaper, 739. 

Freezy, lad. ciiief, character, 51. 

French Bar, mining at, 441, 444, 451, 
453. 

French Canadians as settlers, 56, 62, 
248. 

French Creek mines discovered, 531, 
yield, 532; flooded, 534; decline, 
535. 

Friendly Cove, Meares erects house 
at, in 1788, 5. 

Fry, J., director V. Coal Co., 569. 

Fuca Strait named, 6. 

Fur-traders, language, 51-5; iu B. 
C, 53-72; dress, 54r-5; assimilation 
with natives, 54-5, 129-30, 249; 
horse brigade of, 59; hospitality, 
129; as colonizers, 224, 247; life of. 



G 



Galiano, Capt., expedt. of 1792, 20- 
8; map of, 23. 

(iambliug in Cariboo, 518. 

"Ganges," H. M. S., 404, 624. 

Gardner, G. C, U. S. comniisLiioner 
in S. Juan trouble, 010. 

George, dry-diggings, location, 404; 
mining at, 405. 

"Georgiaua," ship, .344, .301. 

Germansen Creek, mining, 551, !i33. 

Germansen, Jas, gold discoverer 1870, 
551. 

Germany, S. .Juan question rcfeiTed 
to emperor of, 638-9. 

"Gertrudis," ship, 29. 

Gibbs, B., captured by Inds, 427. 

(Jilchrist, trial for murder, 432-3. 

Gladstone, W. E., opposes H. B. CVl, 
212, 214, 23.3, 379. 

Gold counnissioner, powers, 421. 

(lold discovery, B. C, 1S.J8-7S, 341- 
75, 438-92; on the Fi-aser River, 
33.3-4, 438; effect on Wash, ami 
Or., 356; effect onCal., .357-62, 372- 
3; effect on B. C, 374-5; effect on 
fur trade, 392; on Inds, 392; iu Car- 
iboo country', 472-94; in North, 
520-64. 

Gold-fields act, the, provisions, 420-2. 

"Gold-Hunter," ship, .361. 

Goldsmith, S., miner, 546, 557. 

Gooch, Lieut, Hill Bar trouble, 411. 



rs2 



INDEX. 



Good, Rev. J. B., acct of Ft Hope, 
176; biog. and bibliog., 717-18. 

Good, depy minister of mines on B. C. 
gold yield, 468-9. 

Good -as Any Co. claim, yield, 553. 

Goodyear, W. A., on Monte Diablo 
coal, 566. 

Goose Creek, mining on, 482. 

Goi'dou, Capt., H. Si. S. "America," 
examines N. W. coast, 121-4. 

Gordon, Capt., H.M. S. "Cormorant," 
at Victoria, 124; examines coal, 190. 

Graham, Capt., attacks Indians, 
death, 396-7- 

Grant, Capt., builds road, 447. 

Grant, G. M., bibliog., 702. 

Grant, Jolin, on council V. I., 320. 

Grant, R., justice, 264. 

Grant, W. C, settles at Soke Inlet, 
253-5; bibliog., 253. 

Gray, Capt., visit of, 1788, 6; at- 
tacked by Inds, 8; meets Vancou- 
ver, 15. 

Gray, J. Hamilton, judge 1880, 706. 

Gray Harbor surveyed, 29. 

Gregory, Cape, named, 4. 

Grey, Earl, attitude to H. B. Co., 
203, 208, 228, 263-5; on grant of V. 
I., 215; appoints gov., 263-5. 

Griffin, C. J., actions in S. Juan 
trouble 1854, 607-8. 

Griffith claim, yield, 526. 

Grouse Creek, mining on, 480, 493-4, 
515. 

Gi-ouse Creek Flume Co., Grouse 
Creek War, 429. 

Grouse Creek war, the, contestants, 
cause, 429; result, 430. 

Guichon Creek, coal discovered, 579. 

"Guilietta," schr, 361. 

Gulf of Georgia named, 18. 

Gun Creek, gold discovered, 454. 



Haggaret, J. M., Amer. settler on 

8. Juan, 018. 
Haidahs, Inds, hostility of, 427. 
Half-breed claim, yield, 535-6. 
Haliburton, J., dir. V. Coal Co., 569. 
Haller, Maj. G. 0., establishes post 

at Port Towusend, 61.3. 
Hanley, W. 0., of first legis. council, 

583. 
Hanlej', W. T., col. of customs, 405, 

417. 
Hang Ditch completed, 529. 
Hanna, Capt. J., trade with natives, 

1786, 4-5; localities named by, 26. 



Hard Curry Co. claim, yield, 498. 
Harewood coal mine, yield, 573, 

577. 
Harney, Gen., actions in S. Juan 

affair, 617; commun. on, 620-1; re- 
called, 632; quarrel with Gen. Scott, 

633-5. 
Haro, Gonzalos de, northern expedt. 

1788, 3; at Nootka, 8. 
Haro Strait named, 10; surveyed 

1791, 13-14. 
"Harpooner," ship, 253, 257. 
Harvey Creek, mining at, 479, 489- 

90, 515. 
Haskell Bar, mining at, 455, 457. 
Hawes, aids Hudson's Bay Co., 214. 
Haynes, J. C, judge, 435; gold 

commr, 524 
Hazel Point named, 16. 
Hazlitt, VV. C, gold discoverer, 343. 
Heceta, exploration of 1774-9, 3. 
Hector, Jas, on gold-field formation, 

466; on Nanaimo coal, 571. 
Helmcken, J. S., at Fort Rupert, 243- 

6; personal appearance, 243; magis- 
trate, 244-5, 271, 273; as a doctor, 

245; speaker first assembly, 324, 

327. 
"Herald," surveying ship, 124-5. 
Herd, David, before comm. in Eng. 

onH. B. Co., 381. 
Heron claim, yield of, 493-4. 
Hicks, , commr for crown lands, 

405. 
Higgins, J. E., Amer. settler on S. 

Juan, 617. 
High Low Jack claim, yield, 500. 
Hill Bar, govt at, 302-3; rivalry with 

Yale, 409-14; mining at, 441, 443, 

465; town laid out, 441. 
Hill, Bishop, reports gold discovery, 

453. 
Hippa Island named, 5. 
Hixon, miner on Canon Creek, 510. 
Hixson Creek, mining on, 510. 
Hog affair of the S. Juan Isl. 1859, 

616. 
Holbrook, H., of first legis. council, 

583. 
Homer, Joshua A. R., of first legis. 

council, 5S3. 
Home Sound, coal discovered, 201. 
Homfray Channel, Spanish name for, 

25. 
Hood Canal named, 16. 
"Hope," brig, 29. 
Hope, town surveyed, 400; laid out, 

402; mining in dist, 442, 444, 464, 

466, 471. 
"Horcasitas," schr, 11. 



INDEX. 



783 



Honiliy, Capt., at Esquimalt, 404; 
urges joint occupation of 8. Juan, 
GJO; interview with Col Casey, 
6-23-4. 

Horse Beef Bar, mining at, 4-33. 

Horsefly, the, miuing on, 480-7; re- 
resemblance to California gold- 
fields. 487. 

Hovey diggings, mining at, 4G.5. 

Howe Sound named, 20. 

Howell, K., gold discoverer, 5o3. 

Hubbs, C. H., Amer. settler on S. 
Juan, 617. 

Hubbs, Paul K. , Amer. settler on S. 
Juan, 617. 

Hudson Bar, gold discovered, 441, 
443, 444. 

Hudson's Bay Co., treatment of luds, 
44-51, 207, 280, 331-5, 378, 3!)); 
drive opposition from coast, 59-60; 
policy to settlers, 64, 81, 204-5, 
235, 248; relation to Russ. Amer. 
Co., 61, 68-9, 128, 178-9; character 
of officers, 81, 129, 210, 372; eilect 
on, of Cal. gold discovery, 180-4; 
policy, 20.3-7, 210-11, 381, 379; as 
colonizers, 211, 223, 234, 250-2. 
260-1; claim to Rupert Land, 211; 
opposition to, 212-17, 232-4, 251-2, 
261, 313-14, 386; renewal of char- 
ters, 217-19, 316; colonizes V. I., 
223-37, 313; causes of failure, 337- 
40, 251-2, 311-13, 379; rule in V. 
I., 234-7; relation to Gov. Blan- 
chard, 268-72, 276-80; monopoly 
on V. I., 312; eifect on, of gold dis- 
covery, 341-54, 393, 467; gold ex- 
port, 3j1, 353; attitude to miners, 
360-1, 371-2, 386; decline of power, 
376-87; discussion on charter, 376- 
81; union with N. W. Co., 377; 
stations, 380, 385; restrictions on 
trade, 467; Inds discover gold and 
coal, 545, 569; coal-mining, 569; 
take possession of 8. Juan, 607. 

Hume, J., opposes H. B. Co., 2.32-3; 
explores Lightning Creek, 506. 

Hunt, Capt., in comd of Amer. troops 
at 8. Juan, 630. 

Hurley, killed by Indians, 368. 

"Huron," brig, 343-4. 



Idaho Terr., configuration, 39; climate, 

42. 
"Imperial Eagle," ship, 5. 
Imports, value 1884, 751. 
"Inconstant," ship, 124. 



Indians, early trade with, 4-5; attack 
Meares' party, 1788, 6; under H. 
B. Co. rule, 44-51, 207, 235-0, 274- 
5, 280, 331-5, 391; hanged. 46, 236, 
324, 429; persecutions of, 46, 274- 
5, 425-7; regard for Cliinese and 
negroes, 49; influence of civilization 
on, 54-5; writeis on, 75; settle N. 
W. terr., 76-7; hostility of, 108- 
10, 173, 194, 236, 331, 365-8, 391-5, 
427-8, 434, 614; as farmers, 127; 
slavery among, 132; small-pox 
among, 149; liquor trade with, 207, 
271, 280; character, 288-9, 426, 
431-2; as gohl discoverers, 345, 348, 
351, 353, 392-3, 545; treaty witli 
miners, 396 9; law among, 426; at- 
tack on ships, 427, 429; flock to 
Victoria, 428; discover coal to H. 
B. Co., 568-9; missionaries among, 
718-19; govt treatment, 719-27. 

Inland 8entinel, newspaper, 739. 

"Iphigenia," sliip, 6; seized by Span- 
iards, 1789, 8. 

Irwin, J. V. H., director V. Coal Co., 
569. 

Isbister, Alex., before comm. in Eng. 
on H. B. Co., 381. 

Isherwood, B. F., on merits of eastern 
and western coals, 575. 



Jack of Clubs Creek, hanging at, 436; 

mining on, 482, 515. 
Janiiesou, A. J., leads prospecting 

expedt., 434. 
Jervis Canal named, 20. 
Johnson, Peter, Amer. settler on 8. 

Juan, 617. 
Johnson, Reverdy, instructions to, on 

8. Juan question, 635. 
Johnstone, James, in Yancouvers 

expedt., 25. 
Johnstone Strait, Spanish name for, 

26. 
Jones, Capt., meeting with hostile 

Inds 1859, 614. 
Jordan and Abbott claim, yield, 509. 
Judiciary, ailniiu. of justice, 419-37; 

J Ian for, 420. 
ulia," steamer, 622. 



Kamloop Lake prospected, 458-9. 
Kamloo])s, gold discovered at, 348; 
growth of, 458. 



784 



INDEX. 



Kamloops, Inds, character, 136. 

Kanakas at Fort Camosun, 127, 130, 
192. 

Kane, miner, 548-9. 

Kane, P., artist, in north-west 1846, 
131-2. 

Kauifman, J., 537. 

Keithley, miner, 483-4, 486. 

Keithley Creek, mining on, 486, 489- 
90, 515. 

Kellett, Caj)t. H. , surveys Fuca Strait, 
125. 

Kendrick, Capt., visit of, 1788-9, 8. 

Kennedy, Capt., gov. at V. I. 1864, 
593. 

Kennedy, J. F., mem. of first as- 
sembly, 321, 327. 

Kernaghan, Wm, before comm. in 
England on H. B. Co., 381. 

King, murder by, 401. 

King, Richard, before comm. in Eng. 
on H. B. Co., 381. 

"Kingfisher," schr, plundered by 
Inds, 249. 

"King George," ship, 5. 

King George Sound named, 4. 

King George's Sound Co., formed for 
fur-trading, 17S6, 5. 

Kirbyville started, 533. 

Knight Canal named, 26. 

Kootenai mines, 521-9, 532; inacces- 
sibility of, 522; roads to, 523. 

Kootenais, Inds, character of, 50, 136; 
missionaries among, 718. 

"Kossuth," schr, 361. 



" Labouchere," steamer, 633. 
Labouchere. despatch to Douglas, 317; 

instructions to col. govt, 318-20; 

on H. B. Co. charter, 377-8. 
Lacourse, T., in Anderson's expedt., 

159. 
Lacy, Lt, massacres Inds, 275. 
La Fleur Co. claim, yield, 532. 
"Lagrange," ship, 48. 

Laing, , captured by Inds, 427. 

Laird River, mining on, 560-2. 

Lake Hill Farm, 261. 

Laketown, trade at, 563—4. 

Lane in north-west, 131. 

Langnevin, minister of public works, 

502, 504; on gold yield, 557. 
Langford, E. E., settler at V. I., 250, 

261; farm of, 251; mem. of first as- 
sembly, 321, 325. 
Langley, site surveyed, 400; as mining 

locality, 444; description of, 716. 



La Perouse, on N. W. coast 1785, 3. 

Lassertes, accident to, 291-2. 

Last Chance Creek, mining on, 482, 

507, 517. 
Lawrence, A., U. S. minister, 207. 
Lawrence Island, Spanish name for, 

21. 
Lay, Kootum, Indian chief, 393. 
Leech, P. J., discovers coal, 568. 
Lefoy, J. H., before comm. in Eng. 

onH. B. Co., 3S1. 
Legislative council, organized 1863, 

583. 
Legislature, pi'oceedings of 1872-86, 

705. 
Lewis, H. G., voyage 1851, 195; biog. 

and bibliog., 758. 
Lewis, P. H., with overland party, 

368, 482. 
Liard River, mining on, 563. 
Library among fur-traders, 63. 
Lightning Co., work, 507; J'ield, 508. 
Lightning Creek prospected, 480-2; 

rush to, 496; history, 506; miuing 

at, 506, 508, 513, 515; coal dis- 
covered, 579. 
Lilloet River, mining at, 452, 471. 
Lincoln, Earl of, opposes lludson's 

Bay Co., 21.3, 2.32-3. 
"Live Yankee," bai'k, .361. 
Lolo, J. B., Ind. cliief, character, 

140-1; reveals conspiracy, 141-5. 
London, Allan's attempt to raise loan 

in, 65.'); syndicate formed to build 

railway, 678. 
Lopez Island, 606. 
Lord, J. K., bibliog., 759. 
"Lord Western," ship, wrecked, 254. 
Lost Creek, mining on, 551, 554, 558. 
Lowhee Creek, niining on, 482, 496, 

509, 515. 
Lyons, Lord, Eng. minister at Wash., 

625; actions in S. Juan affair, 625- 

7; proposes abitration, 635. 
Lytton district, minmg at, 447, 449, 

450, 464, 466, 471. 
Lytton, Sir C. B., on gold discovery 

B. C, 370. 



M 



Macdonald, A., map of N. W., 55. 
Macdonald, Wm J., biog., 758-9. 
Macfie on Cariboo mines, 498. 
Macoun, Professor, in railway sur- 
vey expedt., 650. 
"Madonna," bark, 361. 
Mainland Guardian, newspaper, 739. 
Mamoosie mine, coal yield, 200. 
Manitoba created, 385. 



INDEX. 



785 



Manson, D., in Anderson's expedt., 
174; justice, 204. 

Mausou River, mining on, 551, 553, 
55S. 

Manufactures of territory, 603, 748-9. 

Maps, Caniosun and vicinity, 86; 
Shush wap country, 137; Anderson's 
routes, 162; Yale and Hope, 177; 
northern forts, 11)2; south end of 
Vancouver Island, 259; the lower 
mining region, 442; the upper gold 
dists, 459; Cook's 1788, 3; Meares', 
7; Quimper's, 9; Elisa's, 12, Van- 
couver's No. 1, 17; Vancouver's No. 
2, 19; Galliano's, 23; Vancouver's 
No. 3, 27; Cariboo country, 474; 
Archipelago de Haro, 606; Canadian 
Pacific, 681. 

Maquinna, Ind. chief, 28, 

" Maria," steamer, 364. 

Maria Bar, goUl discovered, 440. 

Mariaville established, 443; mining 
at, 444. 

Marrowstone Point named, 16. 

" Martin," steamer, 532. 

Martin, R. M., on policy H. B. Co., 
210-11; on gi'ant of V. L, 221, 224; 
bibliog., 221. 

Martinez, northern expedt. 1788, 3. 

Mary's Peak named, 76. 

Mason, Sec, visits Victoria, 352. 

"Massachusetts," steamer, 617, 619, 
624, 627. 

Maury, Lieut, on geography N. W. 
coast, 374. 

Maynard, Joseph, before comm. in 
Eng. on H. B. Co., 381, 

Mayne, Lieut, Hill Bar trouble, 411- 
13; on the Fraser, 445; on gold dis- 
covery, 463; on coal discovery, 569, 
570. 

McArthur Creek, mining on, 505, 515. 

McCallum Creek, mining on, 482. 

McCauly, Samuel, Amer. settler on, 
S. Juan, 617. 
cClellan,G.B., discovers gold, ,347-8. 

McCreight, John F., judge 1880, 70(). 

McCuUoch Creek, mines discovered, 
531; mining at, 5,32, 536. 

McDame Creek, mining on, 562-3. 

McDonald, mining on Fraser River, 
kills partner, 3.>0-l. 

McDonald, gold-hunter, 479, 483, 492; 
character, 4S;i-4. 

McDonald, Alex., Amer. settler on S. 
Juan, 617. 

McDonald, Angus, clerk at Ft Col- 
ville, 349, 355; chief trader, saves 
Lids, .3()S; at Ft Siiepherd, 385; 
prospecting expedt., 521. 
Hist. Barr. Col. 50 



McEwen, gold discoverer, 344. 

McGotley dry-diggings, mining at, 
451, 464-5. 

McGowan, Ned, Hill Bar trouble, 408, 
410, 412-14; altercation with Phifer, 
414. 

McGraugh, gold discoverer, 527. 

McCiuill's claim, yield, 527. 

Mcintosh, at Fort McLeod, 58. 

McKay, Charles, Amer. settler on S. 
Juan, 617. 

McKay, J. H., Amer. settler on S. 
Juan, 617. 

McKay, J. W., examines N. \V. 
coast, 126-7; visits Cal., 127; chief 
factor, 178-80; outwits Shemelin, 
179; discovers coal, 196-9; char- 
acter, 197; builds Ft Nanaimo, 199; 
explores V. I., 255; mem. of first 
assembly, 325, 327; with Douglas 
among Inds, 333; discovers gold, 
343; reports discovery, 460. 

McKenzie, F., in charge of McLeod 
Lake station, 385. 

McKenzie, Geo., at V. I., 251. 

McKenzie, Mrs, at V. I., 250. 

McKey, treatment of by Inds in 
1786, 5. 

McKinlay, A., among Inds, 131; jus- 
tice, 264. 

McLean, chief trader at Kamloops, 
348-9, 352, 354. 

McLean, J., gold discoverer, 347, 

McLeod, John, at Ft Kandoop, 135. 

McLeod, Malcolm, view of Douglas, 
299. 

McLaughlin, David, leads overland 
party, 367-8. 

McLaughlin, James, with overland 
l)arty, 367. 

McLaughlin Island, Spanish name 
for, 21. 

McLoughlin, John, idea of Astoria as 
a post, 78; retires from H. B. Co., 
87, 119, 126, 29:i-4; as chief factor, 
282; mem. of board of management, 
283; trains Douglas, 28.V6; char- 
acter, 296, 300-9; personal appear- 
ance, 300; policy to settlers, 297, 
304 5; before conim, in Eng, on H. 
B. Co., 381, 

McLoughlin, John, Jr, at Stikeen 
River, 103; assassination, 103, 

McMuUin, Gov., visits Victoria, 352; 
visits Douglas rcL to S. Juan 
trouble, 614. 

McNeill, Capt. W., quarrel with 
Douglas, 69-71; explores V. I., 84; 
establishes Ft Ruijert, 192-4; at 
Beaver Harbor, 271. 



786 



INDEX. 



McTavash,. Dugald, chief factor, 283, 
328, 382, 384; personal appearance, 
383. 

Meares, Capu., visit of, in 1788, 5-8; 

map of, 7. 
"Mexicano," schr, 20. 

Miles, John, before comm. in Eng. 
on H. B. Co., 381. 

Milton, Viscount, on gold-field forma- 
tion, 466, 498. 

Minehaha claim, yield, 504. 

Mines, scarcity of provisions at, 393; 
govt, 393, 421-2; elements govern- 
ing, 511-12; gold yield, 514, 515; 
population at, 514-15; list of, 515; 
missionaries at, 519; women at, 519; 
on Columbia, 520-42; Kootenai, 622- 
9; report of minister 1884, 749-50. 

Mining on Eraser River, 438, 442; 
name of localities, 441, 448, 451, 
4.55; sluice method, 443; dry-dig- 
gings, 461, 464; in Cariboo, 472- 
519; hill, 512; underground, 517. 

Mining license, 361, 370, 388, 390-1, 
401, 421. 

Mink Gulch, mining on, 504. 

Missionaries on the N. W. coast, 57; 
at mines, 519. 

Mission Creek, mining on, .540. 

Mitchell Harbor, gold-hunters in, 
346-7. 

Moberly Creek, mining on, 460, 538. 

Moberly, W., at the fountains, 455; 
discovers mine, 460. 

"Modesk," H. M. S., 151. 

Moflat, gold discoverer, 556. 

Moffat claim, yield, 498. 

Moffat River, gold discovered, 556. 

Moutigny, E., in Anderson's explor. 
expedt., 159. 

Moody, R. C, colonial officer B. C, 
407-8; settles Hill Bar troubles, 
411-13, selects site for capital, 414— 
15; begins New Westminster, 416; 
lieut-gov., 417. 

Moore, W m, arrest of, 630. 

Mooyie River, mining at, 527. 

Moresby Isl., physical description, 34; 
coal seam, 574. 

Mormon Bar, mining at, 451-2, 455. 

Mosquito Creek, mining on, 441, 504, 
515. 

Mountain system of N. W. coast, 33-40. 

Mount Baker named, 16. 

Mount Rainer named, 16. 

Mount St. Helens named, 29. 

Mount Stejihens named, 26. 

Muir, A., at Victoria 1853, 259-60. 

Muir, John, coal-mining, 193-8; mem. 
of first assembly, 321, 327. 



Muir, Mrs, reception by Inds, 194. 

Muir, M., at Fort Rupert, 273. 

Murchisoii, Sir K., on Cariboo geolo- 
gy, 513; on gold deposits, 539. 

Musgrave, A., gov. 1869-71, 596; 
official acts, 597. 

Mustang Creek, mining on, 504-5. 



N 



Naches Pass, gold discovered at, 348. 

Nanaimo, Spanish name for, 22; coal 
discovered at, 196-200, 569, 578; 
fort built, 199; gold discovered, 343; 
development of town, 574; descrip- 
tion of, 714. 

Nanaimo Coal Co. sell interest, 569. 

Nanaimo mines, work at, 570-1, 573; 
output, 571, 574; area, 573. 

Narvaez, Jos^ M., survey of Haro 
Strait 1791, 13-14. 

Nass River, gold discovered, 347. 

Nation River prospected, 555. 

Neah Bay, original name, 11. 

Nechaco River, coal discovered, 579. 

Needham, chief justice, 337; retires, 
423. 

Nehannes, Inds, character, 50. 

Nelson Creek, mining on, 482, 515. 

Neversweat claim, yield, 498. 

New Caledonia, configuration, 36-9; 
climate, 40-3; fauna, 43-4; natives, 
44-51; fur-traders' life in, 288; govt, 
370; influx of gold-miners, 381-2. 

Newcastle, Duke of, on settlement V. 
L, 262. 

Newcastle Isl., coal discovered, 198, 
200, 573. 

Newcastle mine, work at, .569, 571; 
compared witli the Douglas, 572. 

New Dungeness named, 16. 

Newittees, Inds, massacre of, 274-5. 

Newspapers in B. C, 739. 

New Westminster laid out, 415-16; 
port of entry, 416; incorporated, 
417-18; legis. council at, 1864, 583- 
5; banquet to Douglas, 588, descrip- 
tion of, 715-10; newspapers, 7.39. 

New Westminster and Port Moody 
Railway Co. incorporated, 691. 

New Westminster Railway Co. incor- 
porated, 691. 

New Zealaud Co. claim, yield 1875, 
554. 

Nez Percys, Inds, chai'acter, 288-9. 

Nicaragua Bar, mining at, 448, 464, 
465; formation, 463. 

Nicol, C. J., manager V. Coal Co., 
569; report 1860, 570. 



INDEX. 



787 



Nicola, Ind. chief, 51 ; conspiracy of, 

152-G. 
Nicola Lake named, 7H. 
NicoU, C. S., high-sheriff, 410-17, 

4-2i. 
Nicoutaniucli, Inds, cliaracter, 136. 
Niud, V. H., gohl coiuirir, 489,491; 

of first legis. council, 583. 
Nish tacks, uiissionarios among, 719. 
Nobles, liobt, prospects Carnes Creek, 

537. 
Nomenclature, autliorities on, 76-7. 
Nootka, possession of, taken for JSpain 

1774-9, 3; ships at, in J 778-9, 8; 

abandoned and reoccupied 1789-90, 

8; meeting at to settle Eug. claims 

1792, 14, -28-9. 
" Norman Morrison," ship, 257, 258. 
"Northerner," steamer, 627. • 
Northern Pacific Railway founded, 

374. 
North Metropolitan Post, necessities 

of, 78-9. 
"Northwest America," ship, 6, 8; 

seized by Spaniards 1789, 8. 
Northwest Fur Co., feud with Hud- 
son's Bay Co., 79. 
Northwest Terr., eastern parallels, 32; 

limits, 33; configuration, 33-40; 

climate, 40-3; fauna, 43-5; natives, 

44-51; occupied by Eng. and U. S., 

63-6, 81, 121-7; settlements, 248; 

sold by H. B. Co., 385. 
Nugent. John, U. S. commr to B. C, 

358, 360, 405, 453, 468-9. 



Oak Cove named, 16. 

Oakes, D. VV., Amer. settler on S. 
Juan, 617. 

Ogden, P. 8., chief factor, 57; at Ft 
Vancouver, 131; report on coal dis- 
covery, 189-90, justice. 264; on 
board of chief factors, 283; at Ft St 
James, 385; at Stewart Lake, 548, 
550. 

Okanagan Lake, mining on, 540. 

Okanagans. Inds, character, 136; hos- 
tility, 368. 

Olney, Oscar, dept. collector on S. 
Juan Isl., 609. 

Omineca mines, location, 544; gold 
excitement, 547; winter life at, 552; 
yield, 552-3, 557-8; hydraulic min- 
ing, 553; failure, 556-7. 

Ouderdonk, A., contract for building 
railway, 680. 

Oppeuheimer, Q,, miner, 526, 535. 



Orcas Island, 606. 

Oregon, soil of, 40; settlers' chaiacter, 
54; early limits, 55-6; settlements, 
56, 248; early politics, 126; effect of 
Cariboo gold discovery, 356, 478; 
coal fori^ation, 566. 

Oregon treaty 1846, terms, 172-3. 

O'Reilly, Peter, justice of peace, 416, 
4.33; character, 4.34; gold commr, 
441, 524, 551, 554; of firet legis. 
council, 583. 

Orr, James, of first legis. council, 
583, 

"Osprey," schr, 361. 

"Otter," steamer, 334, 390, 444, 607, 
608. 



" Pacific," steamer, wrecked, 562. 

Pacific Railway Construction Co., 
members of, 653. 

Palmer Creek, gold yield, 529. 

Palmer, Lieut, H. S., arrives at Vic- 
toria, 407; on gold discovery, 463; 
on mining dist, 472, 541, 544. 

Palmer, Joel, with overland party, 
368-70; biog., 759. 

Palinerstou, Lord, trade controversy, 
207. 

" Pandora," steamer, 361. 

" Pandora," surA'eying ship, 124-5. 

Parke, Capt,, examines Columbia, 
121, 123. 

Parke, Lt John G., U. S. commis- 
sioner in S. Juan trouble, 610. 

Parkington, Sir J., presents settlers' 
petition, 261. 

Parsnip River, mines on, 555, 579. 

Parsons' bridge built, 251. 

Passage Canal named, 20. 

Passage Island named, 20. 

Pate Creek, mining on, 50.3. 

Pat Kelly's Co. claim, yield, 552. 

Peace River named, 77, 544; mines 
on, 545, 579. 

Pedder Bay, original name, 9. 

Peel, Lieut, examines Columbia, 121, 
123. 

Peers, H. N., discovers coal, 576-7. 

Pelly, Sir J. H., gov. H. B. Co. in 
Eng., 205, 207, 208, 215; nominated 
gov. of B. C, 263-4. 

Potiil)crtou, A. F., judge, 4.33. 

Pemberton, J. D., mem. of first as- 
sembly, 321; colonial surveyor, 400, 
404; on gold yicUl, 469; bibliog., 
759. 

Pund d'Oreille Pwiver, gold discovered, 
521. 



788 



INDEX. 



Pend d'Oreilles, Inds, character, 50. 

Penn Cove named, 18. 

Pearkes, G., crown solicitor, 402; 

plan for judiciary, 420. 
Perez, exploration of, 1774-9, 3. 
Perkins, Geo., Amer. se*ttler on S. 

Juan, 617. 
Perpetua Cape named, 4. 
Perrier, Geo., justice. Hill Bar, 394, 

409-10; dismissed, 413. 
Perry, F., miner, 460, 526, 531. 
Perry Creek, excitement at, 526. 
Pliifer, M. W., altercation with Mc- 

Gowan, 414. 
Physical features, authorities on, 72-3. 
Pickett, Capt. G., with troops to Bel- 

lingham Bay, 613; to S. Juan Isl- 
and, 617-18. 
Pine River, coal discovered, 579. 
Pioneer and Democrat, newspaper, 

on gold discovery, 355. 
Pleasanton, Adj. -Gen., instruction in 

S. Juan affair, 620. 
" Pleiades," H. M. S., 404, 619. 
"Plumper," H. M. S., 390, 408, 416, 

569, 570, 610, 619. 
Plumper Sound surveyed 1791, 14. 
Pohallok, Ind. chief, 165-6. 
Point Atkinson named, 20. 
Point Chatham named, 26. 
Point Duff named, 26. 
Point Francis named, 20. 
Point Gordon named, 26. 
Point Gower named, 20. 
Point Grenville named, 15. 
Point Grey named, 20. 
Point Marshall, 25. 
Point Partridge named, 18. 
Point Roberts named, 20. 
Point St George named, 15. 
Point William named, 20; Spanish 

ships at, 21. 
Point Wilson named, 18. 
Police, mounted, character of, 331, 

434. 
Popular tribunals in B. C, 436. 
Port Cox named, 6. 
Port Discovery named, 16. 
Port Effingham named, 6. 
Porter, F., shoots Barr, 539. 
Port Gardner named, 18. 
Portlock, Capt., visit of, 1787, 5. 
Port Moody, reasons for selection as 

terminus, 684-6. 
Port Neville named, 26. 
Port San Juan named, 9. 
Port Susan named, 18. 
Port Townsend named, 16. 
Possession Sound named, 18. 
Poverty Bar, mining at, 441. 



Prevost, Capt., o .jld discovery, 355; 
at Victoria, 388; commr in S. Juan 
trouble, 610; urges joint occupation 
of S. Juan, 620. 

Prince Albert Bar, mining at, 464, 
465. 

" Princesa," ship, 15, 20, 29. 

"Princess Royal," ship, seized by 
Spaniards 1789, 8. 

Protection Island surveyed, 16. 

Puget, Lt Peter, in Vancouver's 
expedt., 16. 

Puget Sound named, 18; early im- 
portance, 373-4; Eng. men-of-war 
on, 623. 

Puget Sound Agricultural Co., in- 
augurated, 52; growtli, 82; attempt 
to colonize V^ I-, 226-7; farming by, 
251, 260-1, {. 

Puget Sound -Bar, gold discovered, 
441-2, 444. 

Puget Sound Mining Co. formed, 206; 
colonize V. I., 251-2, 260-1. 



Q 



QuackoUs, Inds, inform H. B. Co. of 

coal-fields, 186-8. 
Quadra, town, founded, 576. 
Quartz Creek, mining on, 551, 562. 
Quatsino Sound, coal mining at, 201. 

569, 578. 
"Queen Charlotte," ship, 5. 
Queen Charlotte Coal Mining Co. 

formed, 575-6. 
Queen Charlotte Island named, 5; 

configuration, 34; coal discovered, 

201, 567, 578; gold discovered, 343- 

5, 558-9. 
Queen Charlotte Sound named, 26. 
Quesnel River, mining on, 457, 473, 

4S5-6, 515. 
Quimper Bay named, 10. 
Quimper, Manuel, explorations of, 

1790, 8-11; map, 9. 



Raby claim, yield, 498. 

Rae, John, before comm. in Eng. on 

H. B. Co., 381. 
Rae, W. G. , at Stikeen River, 103. 
Randall Co. claim, yield, 540. 
Rattray, Dr, on gold discovery, 463. 
Ray, J. R., preempts on Fraser, 392, 
"Recovery," ship, 331, 346-7, 405. 
Red River settlement, colonization 

of, 226-7. 



INDEX. 



7W 



Reese River, mini on, 542. 

Roid, Capt., visits Victoria, 259-60. 

Reuuie Bros, death of, 482. 

"Republic," steamer, 301. 

" Resolution," ship, 16. 

Revenue, 3S0, .S.S7-40, 370-1, 390, 400, 

402 3, 4 17- IS, 75.V6. 
Rice, killed by Indians, 368. 
Richards, Capt, report on Nanaimo 

coal, 571; commron S. Juan trouble, 

610; urges joint occupation, 620. 
Richardson, coal discoverer, 567. 
Richardson, Sir John, before coinm. 

in Kng. on H. B. Co., 381. 
Richfield mining settlement, 504. 
Ridge Co. claim, yield, 535. 
Rim Rock Co. claim, yield, 553. 
Roberts, C. C, on Frn^ser excitement, 

358. 
Robertson, W., on b»g Bend excite- 
ment, 531. 
Robinson's Bar, mining at, 451, 453. 
Roche, A. R., before comm. in Eng. 

on H. B. Co., 381. 
Rock Creek mines, yield 1860-1, 539. 
Rocky I'oint named, 15. 
Roebuck, on Hudson Bay Co. charter, 

378. 
Rosario Strait, original name, 1 1 . 
Rose, miner, 479, 483, 492; death, 

483-4. 
Ross, Alex., at Fort Kamloop, i:^. 
Ross, Chas, commands Fort Camo- 

snn, 101; dies, 102. 
Ross, John, before comm. in Eng. on 

H. B. Co., 381. 
Rouse, Capt. , attack on Inds, 395. 
Rowland, discovers gold, 344. 
Royal Bay, original name, 10; situa- 
tion, 87. 
Rupert Land, sale of, by H. B. Co., 

385. 
Russell, Lord John, opposes H. B. 

Co.'s charter, 213, 215. 
Russian American Co.'s relation to 

H. B. Co., 61, 68-9, 128, 178-9; to 

Eng. traders, 178. 
Russian Creek, mining on, 510. 



Sacramento Bar, mining at, 441, 443. 
Sailor Bar, mining at, 448. 
St George li;iy named, 15. 
"St .Joseph, ' sliip, 29. 
Salmon Creek, mining at, 529. 
San Antonio Point named, 9. 
San Bias, supplies sent from to Noot- 
ka, 8. 



"San Carlos," ship, 8. 11, 21, 29. 
Sanders, E. H., judge, 433; of first 

legis. council, 583. 
San Eusebio I'oint named, 9. 
"Santa Gertrudis," ship, 15. 
Sangster, J as, signs address, 282; 

signs petition, 314. 
San Juan l.sland, area, 606; H. B. Co. 

take possession of, 607. 
San Juan Island difficulty, 1854-72, 

605-49. 
Sankster, Mr, acticms in S. Juan 

trouble 1854, 607-8. 
" Santa Cruz," steamer, 361. 
Santa Cruz Point. See New Dunge- 

neas. 
Saskatchewan, gold excitement 1866, 

524-5. 
"Satellite," H. M. S., 355, 388, 389, 

405, 428, 610,618. 
" Saturnina," ship," 21. 
Saunders, E. H., asst gold comm. at 

Ft Yale, 417. 
Savary Island named, 25. 
Savona's Ferry, growing prosperity 

of, 716. 
Scott, Gen., sent to Pacific coast, 627; 

actions in S. Juan aflair, 627-31; 

quarrel with Gen. Harney, 633-5. 
Scranton, J., visits Victoria, 352. 
"Sea Bird," steamer, 364, 444. 
" Sea Otter," ship, 5. 
Seemann, B., on Ft Camosun, 112-13; 

on H. B. Co.'s trade, 129-30. 
Selby, P., director V. Coal Co., 569. 
Selwyn, Mr, railway survey expedt., 

650. 
Semiahmoo Bay, meeting of S. Juan 

commissioners at, 610-13. 
Settlei-s, encroachment on the Co- 
lumbia 1843, 81; restrictions on, 

210-11; term defined, 247; of Ore- 
gon, 248; of v. I., 2.')2-61; petition 

to parliament, 261; petition to gov,, 

281-2; character, .307. 
Seward, Sec, actions in S. Juan 

affair, 635-7. 
Seymour, town, 458, 5.33. 
Seymour, Fred., succeeds Douglas as 

gov. of B. C, .588; officiid actions 

1864-5, 589-1; death, 596. 
Seymour, (i. F., conunander of fleet 

in South Pacific, 125. 
Shaw Island, 606. 
Shenjclin, Russ. agent, 179. 
Shepherd, Capt., ut V. I., 124. 
.Shilkumcheen, Ind. village, 166. 
Ship-building, V. I., 2.'>5. 
Shipping, fiist vessel built on N. 

\V. coast 1788, 6; arrivaU 1880, 733. 



790 



INDEX. 



Shoal water Bay, Capt. Mear.es at, 
17 88, 6. 

" Shubrick," steamer, 624. 

Shush wap River, mining on, 460. 

Shushwaps, Iiids, character, 50; hos- 
tility, 134-50; country, 137; dress, 
139-40. 

Sibit 7, H. W., trade controversy, 207. 

Siddt'l, surgeon, arrives V. I., 407. 

Silver Creek, mining on, 1870, 551. 

Sirailkameen, Inds, character, 136. 

Similkameen River, mining on, 348, 
541, 579. 

Simpson, Sir G., in Korenais country, 
37-8; at V. I., 84-6; at Ft Kam- 
loops, 135; descends B'raser river, 
159; gov. H. B. Co. in Amer., 205, 
207; before comni. in Eng. on H. 
B. Co.. 381. 

Simpson River, coal discovered, 576, 
579. 

Skeena River, mining on, 345-7, 555, 
576, 578. 

Skeleton Creek, mining on, 551, 554. 

Skidegate IsL, coal discovered, 201. 

Skinner, Thomas, mem. of first as- 
sembly, 321, 327 

"Skuzzy," steamer, 683. 

Slavery among Indians, 132. 

Small-pox among Indians, 149, 

Smith, A. G., miner, prospecting, 
525, 5:«. 

Smith Inlet named, 26. 

Smith, R. T., gold commissioner, 532; 
of first legis. council, 583. 

Smith, S. R., takes steamer up the 
Eraser, 683. 

Smith, Wm, Amer. settler on S. Juan, 
617. 

Smith, W. G., secy H. B. Co., re- 
port, 339-40. 

Smuggling in B. C, 417. 

Snow, Capt., voy. of 1836, 48. 

Snowshoe Creek, mining on, 482, 489, 
515, 562. 

Snyder, H. M,, treats with Indians, 
396-8. 

Soke Inlet, Spanish name, 9; settled, 
253-4; coal discovered, 579. 

Songhies, natives V. I., 95, 111; at- 
tend mass, 99; attack Ft Camosun, 
108-10. 

Sovereign Creek, mining on, 482. 

Spaniards op. coast of B. C. 1774—9, 
2-3. 

Spaulding, W. R., justice of peace at 
Queensborough, 416; postmaster, 
417. 

Spence, T., gold discoverer, 441. 

Spindulen Flat, mining at, 451. 



Spintlum, Indian chief, 401. 
Squazown, Ind. village, 166. 
Staines, Mrs, at V. I., 239, 250. 
Staines, R. J., at Victoria, 238-41; 

opposes H. B. Co., 240-2; death, 

243. 
Stephens, Gov., leads exploring ex- 

pedt., 374. 
Steptoe, Col, fights Indians, 395. 
Stevens Creek, mining on, 4S2, 505. 
Stevens, Gov., comm. on S. Juan 

trouble, 608. 
Stikeen country, description, 38-9. 
Stikeen River prospected 1861, 559. 
Stock-raising, favorable regions for, 

744-6. 
Strawberry Bay named, 20. 
Stuart, John, descends Fraser River, 

159. 
Sugar Creek, mining on, 482, 504. 
Sullivan, gold commissioner, drowned, 

562. 
"Surprise," steamer, 364, 444. 
"Susan Sturgis," ship, 346. 
"Sutil," Spanish brig, 20. 
Suti'o, Adolph, on gold discovery B. 

C, 373. 
Suan, J. M., visits Victoria, 229, 231. 
"Swiss Boy," brig, captured by 

Inds, 427-8. 



Tababoo Creek, mining on, 482. 
Talikats, missionaries among, 719. 
Tako River, Douglas exialores, 71. 
Taylor, J. F., U. S. commissioner on 

S. Juan trouble, 610. 
Teet, Inds, character, 136. 
Tellatella Quatza, Indian chief, 393. 
Tennant, James, before comm. in 

Eng. on H. B. Co., 381. 
Tennent, G. W., secy law-makers, 

393. 
"Tepic,"ship, 346-7. 
"Termagant," H. M. S., 417. 
" Thames City," ship, 404. 
"Thetis," H. M. S., 124, 236, 331. 
Thibert Creek, mining on, 560-3. 
Thistle Creek, mining on, 482. 
Thompson, D., builds Ft Thompson, 

134, 
Thompson River, mining on, 458-61; 

469, 579. 
Thompson Sound, Span, name for, 26. 
Thornton, John, miner, on Salmon 

Creek, 1865, 530. 
"Three Brothers," snip, IS. 
Tillamook Bay, native^ at, attack 

Gray's men 1789, 8. 



INDEX. 



791 



Tod. John, at Kamloops, 134-.T6; per- 
sonal apptjarance, 188-9; crushea 
Ind. couspiracy, 141 -;V2; outMits 
Nicola, 15'J-6; justice, 264; farmer, 
278-9; on council, 281, 3I(j; at Ft 
McLeod, 288. 

Tolmie, W. F., manager agric. co., 
62 3; char.acter, I'u; discovers coal, 
187; justice, 2(54; on management 
H. B. Co., 328. 

"Tonqnin," ship, seized by luds, 45. 

"Topaze,"H. M. S., 417. 

"Tory," ship," 195, 257. 

Toy, P., miner, 546; prospects Finlay 
River, 555. 

Trafalgar Bar, gold discovered at, 441, 
444. 

Travaillot, O., conimr for crown lands, 
405; gold commr, 451. 

"Tribune," H. iM. S., 404, 619. 

"Triucomalee," H. M. S., 2.S6, 334. 

Tsilaltach, Soiigliies chief, 97-9; at- 
tacks Ft Caniosnn, 108-10. 

Tsoughilam, Cowichin chief, attacks 
Fort Camosun, 107-10. 

Tucker, attacked by Indians, 394. 



U 



"Umatilla," steamer, 364, 401, 445. 
" Una," ship, 34.5. 
Union Act, provisions of, 594—5. 
Union Bar, gold discovered at, 441. 

444. 
Union Coal Mining Co., work, 568. 
Urquhart, miner, 504. 



Vail, light-keeper at Blunt Isl., 614. 

Vahl^s, Capt., expedt. of, in 1792, 
20-8. 

Valdes Harbor. See Esquimalt. 

"Vancouver," ship, 71, 120. 

Vancouver Coal Mining and Land 
Co. organized, 569. 

Vancouver, G., com. for Eng. in 
Nootka afiair 1792, 14-15; voy. 
and places named by, 15-29; maps 
of, 17, 19.27. 

Vancouver Island named, 29; configu- 
ration, 34; climate, 42; fauna, 43; 
importance of situation, 8.3-4; occu- 
pation of, 93-101; coal discovered, 
106; granted to H. B. Co., 202-22; 
colonized by H. B. Co., 223-37; 
settlements, 247-62, 314; map, 259; 
population, 1853, 260; govt es- 



tablished. 263-84; seal of, 279 SO; 
under Douglas, 310-28; legislatuit;, 
317 27; flect.)i-al di»ta, 320; judi- 
ciary of, 329-40; revenue, 3;J0. 337- 
40, 592; supreme court created, 
419-20; first capital execution, 4;i5; 
mining population 1859-61, 471; 
coal mining, 566-80; population 
1864, 592. 

Van Valzah, expedt. against Ind.s 
1859, 615. 

Van Winkle Creek, mining on, 482, 
506-8. 

Vashou Island nametl, 18. 

Vantrin, J. B., in Anderson's expedt., 
159. 

Vavasour, Lieut, report on Nisqnally, 
52; census of Ind. tribis, 75; de- 
scrilies Ft Camosun, 112; examiiica 
N. W. coast, 125-6, 189; re^x^rt on 
coal discovery, 189. 

Verdia, pilot in Elisa's expedt., 13. 

Victoria laid out, 113; settlers, 2.')8; 
population 185.3, 260; 1861, 707; 
186.3, 70S; 1866, 709; gold dis- 
covered, 343; port of entry, 403; 
Inds flock to, 426-7; business de- 

Eressiou 1860, 470; revival, 477; 
anquet to Dougl.is, 587-8; incor- 
porated, 708; city described, 709- 
11; newspapers of, 739. See Ft 
Victoria. 

Victoria Bar, gold discovered, 441, 
444. 

Victoria Coal Mining and Land Co., 
mines and land owned by, 715. 

Victoria and Esquimalt Railway Co., 
charter granted, 697. 

Victoria (iazette, first newspaper in 
Victoria, 739. 

Vitalle Creek, mining on, 549, 558. 



W 

Waddington, A., miner, 348, .3.")0; 

attacked by Inds. 428; estimate of 

gold yield B.C.. 469. 
Waldron Island. 606. 
Walkeni, <i. A., attorney-general, 656- 

8,676.701-3. 
Wanquille, Ind. chief, 51. 
Wanquille River named, 76; mining 

on, 4.">8. 
Warre, Lieut, report on Nisnually, 

52; census of Or. terr. Inds, 75; 

examines N. W. coast, 12.5-6, 189; 

report on gold discovery, 1S9. 
Warren, J. D., Amer. settler on S. 

Juan, 617. 



(92 



INDEX. 



" Washington," ship, 6, 8. 
Way, F. , starts ferry, 446. 
Webster, A., in railway survey 

expedt., 650. 
Welden, Capt., captured by Indians, 

427. 
Wellesley, Capt., attacks Indians, 

274. 
Wellington mines, work at, 570, 573; 

fire at, 576. 
Wells Passage named, 26. 
Whalex's, northern x'eudezvous for, 

83, 100, 120. 
Whannell, P. B., justice, 402, 409-10. 
Wharton, H., Anier. settler on S. 

Juan, 617. 
Whatcom, rise and fall, 359-64. 
Whidbey, Joseph, in Vancouver s 

expedt., 16, 24. 
Whipsaw Creek, mining on, 505. 
Wicananish, Ind. village, 6. 
Wild Horse Creek, mining on, 523, 

524, 529. 
Wild Horse Creek ditch completed, 

529. 
"Wild Pigeon," schr, .355. 
Willamette Valley, settlements in, 56, 

61, 80. 
William, Emperor, S. Juan question 

referred to, 638. 
" William Berry," ship, 361. 
William Creek, mining on, 482, 484, 

495-509, 512, 513, 515, 517-18. 



Willow River, mining on, 451-2, 482, 

505. 
Wilson, with overland party, 367. 
Wilson, Mrs, on McLouglin, 300. 
Witty, John, Amer. settler on S. 

Juan, 617. 
Wolf, trader, with overland party, 

.367. 
Women, first ari-ival of whites, 249- 

50; at Cariboo mines, 519. 
Ai'^ool, Gen., establishes post at Bel- 

lingham Bay, 613. 
ATork, John, chief factor, 133, 328, 

.384; justice, 264; signs settlers' 

petition, 314; on council, 216; hunts 

for gold, 346-7. 



Yale, gamblers at, 360; site surveyed, 
400; govt established, 401; mining 
troubles at, 408-14; mining at, 441- 
7, 471; town described, 717. 

Yale, J. M., at Ft Langley, 67; char- 
acter, 171-3; justice, 264. 

Yankee Doodle Bar, gold discovered, 
441. 

Yates, James, settler on V. I., 258; 
signs petition, 314, mem. of first as- 
sembly, 321, 327; fur-trader, 400. 

Young, W. A. G., colonial sec. B. C, 
406. 



L'^ 



